A Clichéd Story
by xs18
Summary: Harry Potter a young active of the Special Unit is moved from his current mission, protecting his sister to protecting the daughter of a french minister during the school term, torn between his duty or protecting his sister, he will have to deal with the girl and her constant tries to talk to him, which endangers his cover, and a tournament where all seems to go wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, I hope you enjoy the story.

I know that there are several stories like this one out there, but few are completed stories, and I hope mine is somewhat original. Besides it's what I felt like writting right now.

By the way I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to it.

Thanks to my beta **.Darkness-X**

Read, Enjoy, and Review.

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 **New mission**

In all the years he had been married to his wife, the Head of the Foreign Affairs Department of magical France, François Delacour, had never been bothered by her stubbornness, or her rather short fuse. They were traits of her Veela heritage, after all, and one of the first things that he had liked about her when they met all those years ago, but today he was exasperated by them. His wife had insisted on getting the best security when he had told her that they had been invited to the Quidditch World Cup, held in England, as he, as the head of the Foreign Affairs department, had to represent France. Even if their national team hadn't made it to the finals, they had participated, and thus a representative of their country had to be present.

At first, François had been thrilled. He had always liked to travel and visit other countries, one of the main reasons he was so good at his job. Now, however, he started to regret it, going to England meant taking his wife with him - while this wasn't a bad thing in itself, far from it, as it would allow them some time together - she had insisted upon taking their daughters to England too; it would help Fleur, she had said, get used to the English ways and customs for when she went with her school, and it would offer Gabrielle the opportunity to see another country for the first time in her life.

It was then that the troubles started, for his wife was quite paranoid about anything that concerned their daughters lately, not that he could blame her, with the things that were happening all over Europe, even more so in this case, as she didn't trust the English government to offer good protection. No amount of reassurances placated her, and so François had promised to contact the escort operative group of the French ministry to get protection for all of them, something that should had been quite easy. After all, he was an important member of the government, and would have been given protection anyway.

The ministry had, of course, granted his request, however their British counterpart had forbidden any foreign security forces from touching British soil, even if their duty was to protect, citing security reasons. Being the politician he was, François knew that the measures didn't have anything to do with security. What was really happening was that the English wanted to look powerful and secure after the escape last year of a prisoner from Azkaban, and allowing foreign forces to take care of the security of some of their guests wouldn't help their image.

After being denied permission, François asked his old friend, Romain Allamand, head of the French Auror Corps, to ask for a few favours and see if they could allow some of their forces to go to England off the books, but even he was denied. Apparently Minister Fudge himself was the one behind the measure. That was why he and his wife were now in the office of the French Minister for Magic, to see if something could be done.

It seemed that not even he could do much since Fudge wouldn't listen to anything he had to say. That, however, didn't deter his wife, who all but demanded the man do more. Hence why François was exasperated. Politicians didn't like to be reminded of the fact that they sometimes couldn't do anything, and if his wife kept making demands, they would be asked to leave, which wouldn't help his wife's cause at all.

Suddenly, his train of thought was interrupted by yet another demand from his wife.

"Monsieur Dupond, surely you must be able to do something. I want my daughters protected, and either you make that possible, or you won't see my husband or I at the damn final." Bad move, thought François. He would have to go whether he wanted to or not, as it was job, and the Minister knew it.

"Madame Delacour, your husband will do what he is asked to, or else, he will be replaced!" the Minister said forcefully.

"You wouldn't do that, and you know it. He is one of the most respected politicians in the government, and has avoided a great number of international incidents. If you replace him, you won't be re-elected, and you know it." she countered. François was surprised. Who would have known that his always-so-polite wife had it in her to talk so directly to the minister? Then again, she was part-Veela, creatures that were known for their fierce character, especially when their children were involved.

"Have we not been friends for many years now, Apolline?" The Minister asked, and she nodded. "Then believe me when I tell you, that I would never endanger you or your daughters, but there is nothing I can do without causing an international incident by being seen to be invading England with French forces. I can assure you that you will be safe. The British Aurors are among the best in the world."

"Safe? How can you say we will be safe with what is happening?" Apolline demanded angrily, and threw a copy of an English newspaper in front of the Minister. The headline read; "Kidnappings of young Veela continue all over Europe, another eight girls reported missing in England."

"I have already read the article," the Minister said, apparently calm, although many years of experience told François that it was all an act. The man was about to kick them out of his office. "and although I am concerned for you and your daughters, as I am for any other French citizen, I can't do anything. I repeat that the English are among the best and will give you full protection. But if you are still concerned, you could leave your daughters here in France. I would ask you to stay too but I can't do that, since I would look bad if François was to appear unaccompanied at the final."

" I won't leave my daughters here alone. They would be in as much danger as they would be in England, and I don't trust anyone enough to leave my daughters with them." Apolline said "And of course I will accompany my husband. I only ask you to make sure we are well protected. Have you by any chance forgotten the trespassing of Gringotts three years ago? Or the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban last year? I don't want anything like that happening with my daughters close by."

"I have spoken with Fudge myself, and he has assured me that both issues have been suitably dealt with." the Minister said, trying to calm her.

"This is Fudge we are talking about here. What do you expect him to say? That he said those incidents have been dealt with doesn't mean anything to me." she said, and then added in a whisper, "A friend told me that a journalist form the Prophet told her that two years ago, someone was attacking Hogwarts students. Apparently, many were petrified and one nearly died. My friend told me her friend tried to publish the article, but she was not allowed to do it. Students being attacked at school" Apolline snorted. "If that is the kind of security the English offer to their nationals, I don't want to imagine what would happen at such huge event as the Quidditch World Cup with so many people. I want my daughters protected." the woman declared.

"Come on, cheri," François said. "surely those are mere rumours. Besides I'm sure they will station their best security at the World Cup. It would look bad if something were to happen and that is the last thing they want right now."

This time, his wife didn't answer, and he knew that the battle was lost. Sighing, he turned to his old friend, silently pleading for him to do something. In turn, Gautier Dupond sighed too, and, without uttering a word, stood up and went to the door. For a moment, François thought he would leave, or ask them to leave, but instead, the minister took a firm hold of the door handle and shook it. Once he checked the locking charms were still in place, he waved his wand a few times and the room glowed blue. Once this was done, he seated himself behind his desk once more and, in a whisper, said:

"What I'm about to tell you is confidential, you cannot repeat it to anyone understood?" He paused and looked at François and Apolline to make sure they understood. When they both nodded he continued, in an even lower voice, if that was possible at that point, "Few people in the world know this. I believe I'm the only one outside of England that knows it, and if I know, it is only because there were a few incidents over the years here in France." At the mention of incidents that happened there in France, both François and Apolline felt a tug on their minds, like it was something they should remember. They both were going to ask about it when Gautier, seeing the looks on their faces, raised a hand to silence them, and continued, "No, don't ask me about that, for I cannot answer, I made an Unbreakable Vow. It was the only way to keep my memories, and I was allowed to do it only because Fudge is an old friend. But going back to the matter at hand, those incidents were the work of a top-secret group, created after the war against Grindelwald, known as the Special Unit for Counter-Attack and National Defence. Today, they work for the British Ministry, and I know for a fact that they will be present at the World Cup to guard some British personalities. I know the Bulgarians have asked for a few to guard Viktor Krum, and the English have agreed, although how many will be guarding him, I don't know. I could try to get some protection for your daughters too, claiming that they are family of an important person, which you are." the minister said, quickly adding "But don't get your hopes up, though. It is very possible that they will deny the request."

-x-x-x-x-x-

Abbie Williams, Head of the Special Unit for Counter-Attack and National Defence, was in a bad mood. The culprit; none other than Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic. Three days ago, he had started to make ridiculous requests of her department, and the list didn't seem to end.

First, he had requested their presence at the Qidditch World Cup. The request itself was normal; they planned on attending disguised as Aurors, as there were some individuals attending that her department had to protect. The problem was that the Minister wanted them to attend dressed in their uniforms, but they didn't even have one. Since their creation in 1945, after the defeat of Grindelwald, they had always operated in secret, thus they always acted as Aurors or Hit Wizards, or, in some rare occasions, as Unspeakables, thus the lack of uniform. But the Minister didn't want to hear it, and so Abbie had had to commission two-hundred uniforms, all of them black, with a crest in silver, depicting a round shield with two wands crossed and their initials.

Next, the Minister had demanded that all of their operatives at the World Cup wear the medals they had been awarded, if they had any. Ridiculous. He should had known that they were never given any medals; all their accomplishments were tattooed on different parts of their bodies, as a tribute to their accomplishments, but only for them to see, as their secretive character was not only towards the rest of the magical community, but towards each other, too.

So, after creating the uniforms, she had to design a collection of medals and give them away as if they were sweets, for every one of their members had at least three of them. Creating them had not been difficult, as she had fashioned them after the already existent marks. Giving them, however, had been hell. All of them were trained since they were ten, and since then, the idea of secrecy was ingrained in their brains, so wearing a testament to their skills for others to see was not in their nature. Fortunately, they were also taught to obey orders, so, after a discussion and a reprimand, she had got all of them to wear the damn medals, albeit reluctantly.

When Abbie had thought that things couldn't get any worse, Fudge had come to her with a great idea; their department had to answer the questions visitors of the World Cup had. Obviously, that had put her in a very foul mood, and she had reminded the Minister, not too kindly, that since the beginning, when they were formed only by Muggle-borns and were tasked with protecting important Purebloods, they had been a secret, and she intended to keep it that way. The Minister, however, had not relented and they had agreed that all questions that were asked of them - if any - that did not pose a security issue should be answered. Although what was and what wasn't a security issue was to be determined by her operatives, Abbie knew they would never answer a question. As with the medals it simply wasn't in their nature.

After his – seemingly - small victory, Fudge had been silent for almost a day, but then he had demanded that her department provide protection to Victor Krum. He had even asked for several, not one, but several, of their operatives to do it. They were only two-hundred, and were not only tasked with the protection of important people in magical Britain, which for some reason included every wand-maker, but also with capturing escaped criminals that went abroad and intelligence gathering, and he wanted her to use several of her already short staffed operatives to protect someone that, according to their information, was not in danger? And now, to make matters worse, he asked for more of her men and women to protect some French politician and their family. Had the man even read their statutes? Since 1980, they were to protect only British citizens that held any position of relevance in the magical community, not any foreign national that came to England to watch a Quidditch game.

Abbie rubbed her forehead, trying to dissipate the headache that was forming, and started to write on a piece of parchment the age, gender, and other characteristics of the people they were to protect. Once the task was completed, she touched it with her wand, and instantly, four dossiers, with the details of the potential candidates to take the mission, appeared out of the thin air. She discarded two of them immediately after opening them; one of them was too old while the other was too inexperienced. That left one folder labelled 13384 and other with the number 15653. Abbie waved her wand and the numbers disappeared, letters reappearing moments later. The files now read Ginevra Molly Weasley and Harry James Potter. She opened Weasley's first.

She remembered her. Weasley had caught the attention of the Special Unit for Counter-Attack and National Defence right away. The first witch to be born in her family in seven generations, and a seventh child. She had to be powerful, so she was put in their registers right after her birth, and when she turned ten, her parents were approached. Since then, according to her file, Weasley had done pretty well in training; three marks appeared in the paper.

The first, a fist with a three in the middle, indicating that Weasley had mastered three of the five possible levels of hand to hand combat. It still stunned Abbie that they taught hand to hand combat, but as her instructor had told her many years ago, if you were quick enough, you could break your opponent's arm or neck before they had the opportunity to draw their wand.

Next to the fist mark was one depicting three swords that had their tips touching each other. This one meant that Weasley was equally proficient with the sword. The third symbol present on the paper showed three wands, each of them standing beside the other vertically. The last symbol present in the paper was a broom with a five in its tail. Apparently, the girl was a very good flyer.

Weasley, it seemed, was a very equilibrated operative. The problem was that, judging by the lack of other marks in her file, she didn't have any practical experience. Something normal, as according to her file, she had only been assigned her first mission at the end of September last year. The girl, Abbie read, was tasked with protecting someone codenamed Kasparov. No other details were given. It was only said that due to some incident at the time, it had became apparent to her department and the Ministry that Kasparov needed to be protected. It was even signed by her, and although Abbie was sure that the signature was authentic, she could not for the life of her remember who Kasparov was, or signing the order for her or his protection.

That gave the head of the Special Unit for Counter-Attack and National Defence the first clue, but it wasn't until she waved her wand again, pointing at the name, willing it to change to the actual name of the individual, and a red line of writing appeared, asking her to sign there that she was sure Weasley was protecting a high profile person, one that needed protection at all times. This made the woman raise her eyebrows. Although excellent, Weasley's file was not enough yet to protect such people. So who could Kasparov be?

Her curiosity piqued, she grabbed a quill from the first drawer in her desk, and with it she wrote her name in the file. The ink that appeared was blood red, and instead of soaking the paper, it simply disappeared. Immediately after, the letters forming the word Kasparov morphed into the name Ronald Bilius Weasley. That, thought Abbie, explained things, for she knew Ronald was a close friend of Erika Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, the one that had vanquished Lord Voldemort thirteen years ago. If Weasley was protecting Ronald, she could not use her to protect some French girl. Potter it was.

The head of the Special Unit for Counter-Attack and National Defence also remembered Harry Potter, but for entirely different reasons. Contrary to Weasley's case, he had not appeared on their radars at all. It had been years later, when Harry was six, if she was correct, that he had been admitted to enter the program when he turned ten. He had only been admitted because Minister Bagnold had met with her and convinced her. The Minister had said that Harry was to protect one person and only that person when trained. Abbie also remembered that Potter had started earlier than most, doing his first direct intervention - the ones that needed direct action from the agent to protect the charge from imminent danger - at thirteen, but once more Abbie could not remember who Potter was supposed to protect and she started to get annoyed, recognising the effects of Obliviation in her mind. If, as she believed, it had been Potter himself who had Obliviated her, that meant that whoever he was protecting needed the highest level of protection. That gave an idea of who it may be; after all, there were just a few people in England that would need that kind of protection, but she checked anyway, or tried to, because the file was blank. Not a single letter was written on it.

For a moment, Abbie just sat there and stared, stunned, at the file, then she remembered the hiding charms that were on some files. She cursed herself. How could she had forgotten? Waving her wand, she undid the charms and stared at the paper as spidery ink started to form numbers and words. But even then they were just his name, age, gender, weight, stature, living family etc. Unimportant things to the head of the department. The rest of the information was codified. She waved her wand again, not without a certain level of despair. What was the use of being the head of your department if you could not see the files of the people who worked with you. This time she willed the codes to change, just to see the familiar writing telling her to sign the file, which greatly exasperated her. Once more, she signed the paper with her blood and waited. This time, however, the only thing she got was another note telling her that Agent Potter's magic was needed to reveal the information, as his charge was a Level One. Just who was Potter protecting, thought Abie, surprised, the minister? Sighing, she rolled up her sleeve and touched the tattoo of the crest of the department with her wand, asking Potter to give her access to the information. The tattoo was a fairly new requirement for the agents. It had been Abbie's idea. if Voldemort could use a mark to communicate with his followers, why couldn't her department do the same?

After a few seconds, the codes started to change again, and Abbie was finally able to read Potter's file. She had to resist the urge to find out who his charge was to focus instead on the details she needed to know.

As in Weasley's file, Potter's had a fist, a sword, a wand, and a broom mark. The fist mark was the same as Weasley's, not strange considering Potter had missed the last exam because he had to go on a direct intervention. The sword mark, however, was different. Instead of three swords, Potter had four. The same was true of the one that indicated his ability with the wand. Finally, the broom mark, as with Weasley's, had a five in its tail, but Potter also had a wand crossed, meaning he showed accuracy when firing spells in the air, and a small snitch that indicated that Agent Potter was trained to chase and catch suspects at high speed and under attack on a broom.

The next line had another three marks. Those were the honours Potter had received in active duty, and Abbie had to admit that she was impressed. Although many had more distinctions that him, all were older than him, and Agent Potter had one that as far as she knew was unique - not even she recognised it. Harry James Potter was indeed a promising agent. The distinctive marks present were a round shield made of bronze in the borders and gold in the middle with a three in it. This again surprised Abbie. Potter was only sixteen and he had already done three direct interventions, and according to the golden colour in the middle, he had been successful in all three. Abbie started to think that maybe she was wasting resources assigning Potter to the French girl, or to a charge at all. Maybe he would be of more use catching criminals, but for once that was not her decision. The minister was quite adamant as to what Potter had to do in the department.

Focusing again, Abbie looked at the next mark in the file. This one represented another shield. At first glance, and to anyone not versed in their service, it would look identical to the last one, but the colour of the mark was not the same. This one was totally black and had no number. This mark, Abbie had not seen in a long while. It was only awarded to those who saved an important member of another country. Agent Williams wanted to discover who Potter had saved right away - after all, it was not every day that a boring lecture turned into as interesting a tale as this one - but her professionalism didn't let her do it, and so she examined the last mark, the one she didn't recognise.

She didn't remember creating a medal out of this mark either, which was odd since she had checked twice to make sure she had covered all the possible marks. Potter had not mentioned it either, although that was normal, as he had been very vocal about the medal issue. Not to her, of course, but he had not liked the idea, so it was not strange that he had not said anything. The mark depicted a snake in green. Not being able to resist anymore, she touched the mark with her wand, and a line appeared in the paper, informing her that Agent Potter had been awarded the medal for successfully using Parseltonge in a highly sensitive mission. Once she saw the information, vague memories of giving the medal to a black-haired boy started to come to Abbie, but still nothing concrete.

After reviewing Potter's skills once more, Abbie went to the crucial section of his file, the one that would determine whether he received a new mission, or remained with the one he currently was assigned, the one where the name of his charge was. The code name read Morgana, and that told her enough. She now knew who Potter was protecting, for Morgana was the name used for the most important female charge in a determined situation, and Abbie was sure she knew who the most important female in Britain was. A wave of her wand confirmed her suspicions: Potter was protecting his sister.

Abbie was about to put aside the file and grab one of the other two she had discarded earlier, when a detail caught her attention. It was at the end of the file, a single note scribbled with a quill - which was uncommon for files - in a messy calligraphy, informing her of an operation that was kept out of the books because Potter was not supposed to have taken part in it. It seemed Potter had already met the French girl, although it didn't say why or how. She would have to call Potter to ask him. After all, he was the most apt operative for the mission. Knowing your charge was always an advantage.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry knew he was going to be called to the head's office. He had felt the pull on his magic an hour ago, asking to access his file, but he didn't expect what the motive he was called in for was.

"I'm sorry," Harry said politely. "I think I misunderstoond you. You want me to take care of a new mission?" he asked, disbelievingly.

"Yes, Agent Potter." the head answered curtly.

"But I already have one, a Level One priority, as you surely saw in my file."

"Yes, I have seen it."Abbie said, sounding rather annoyed. "However, I believe you are the best candidate for this mission, and Weasley could take care of her and your charge. After all, they are almost always together."

"Have you seen who my charge is?" Harry asked, exasperation slipping into his voice.

"Yes, Agent Potter. However, there is no immediate threat to Erika Potter right now." Abbie said, and had to resist the urge to laugh when Harry glared at her for saying his charge's name out loud. Damn operatives, always so paranoid. She had almost forgotten the sensation of constant alert. Almost.

"Still, one person is not enough for her." Harry said. "And who am I supposed to protect now, that is more important or more in danger than my charge?" he asked. emphasising the last two words.

"It's not that she is more important, but the Ministry believes that she certainly is in more danger than your charge." Abbie said, and gave Harry the newspaper of that day. At first, he didn't understand it. He had already read the article the head was pointing at, the one about the young Veela missing. Tragic, sure, but the Aurors were taking care of that, and they did investigation better than anyone, but then it hit him. His next charge was a Veela.

"Well, that explains a little bit, but why me? I already have a mission assigned. A permanent one, if you remember."

"Yes, I remember, but you are closer to her age group, are more than qualified to do it, and you have already met her before." Abbie waited for a reaction.

She was not disappointed. She had caught him off guard, and he unconsciously fingered his wand, the one that according to the file, the family of the girl had given him as a gift.

Tell me, Agent Potter. What do you remember of Paris, two years ago? What do you remember of a charge, codenamed Aphrodite?"

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 **I hope you liked it so far. By the way if you know if any other story with a similar theme please let me know because I would love to read it.**

 **Once more pleae review.**


	2. The Quidditch World Cup

**I corrected some mistakes in this chapter thank you to the guest that brought my arention to it.**

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The Quidditch World Cup

Harry Potter was annoyed, more than that irked, angry, the past week had been hell. First he had been called to the head's office to be assigned a new mission, of all things. There Miss Williams had interrogated him about the Paris incident, something that should have always remained secret, but in spite of being the head of perhaps the most secretive organization in Britain it seemed that his boss despised secrets, even more if she was kept out of the loop. So he had had to spill the story:

"Tell me agent Potter what do you remember of Paris two years ago, what do you remember of a charge codenamed Aphrodite?"

At first Harry had tried to evade the question giving her the standard answer "I'm sorry ma'am but my records don't show any operation in Paris or mention any charge codenamed Aphrodite." But his boss was too stubborn to let it go.

"Your records don't show it because it was an operation carried out of the books, now answer the question agent" Miss Williams had said not too gently.

Comprehending that he didn't have any other option Harry told her the truth after all she was the head; she was not interested in bringing harm to the Unit or to their agents "Excuse me ma'am but it was supposed to be kept a secret as it was not a legal operation"

"I understand agent but no one can hear us here now please proceed"

"Yes ma'am, two years ago I was sent to Paris..." Harry started but was interrupted by Abbie.

"With what purpose?"

"Complete my instruction in foreign cultures and languages" Harry answered and waited for another question, seeing his silence Abbie prompted him.

"You may continue agent."

"It was august 25th and I was supposed to abandon France the next day to prepare the protection for my charge, codename Morgana, having finished my french course I decided to take a break and went to Paris to visit Le Coin Maguique situated at Montmartre. While I was there the place was attacked by a french faction of Voldemort followers. Acting on impulse I started to fire spells and before I knew it I had saved a girl, who, as I later learnt, turned out to be the daughter of, at the time, french ambassador in England François Delacour, one Fleur Delacour, who had eluded her ministry escort."

"After a few seconds Aurors appeared and the attackers retreated, as I was underage, and not supposed to be there, I did what the standard procedure dictates; I surrounded my wand and identified myself as a student on a language course, they arrested me immediately, they interrogated me several times, and I once again told the same story every time, but they had arrive just while I fought the last attacker and had seen my skill, that by then was already quite prominent and didn't believe me, the girl confirmed my skill, so the embassy had to act and made a cover for me, I became a rookie Auror that was on holydays there.

"There was talk of sending me to prison for entering french soil unauthorized, and even a formal complaint to Britain for using under aged wizards as Aurors and a supposed attempt of invasion, but in the end thanks to the intervention of Mr. Delacour I was simply deported and all those involved including him were obliviated."

"And the wand" the head asked and Harry touched his wand involuntary again.

"It was a gift, Mr. Delacour gave it to me before I left France, he came to visit me while I was in a cell in the detention area of the port-key terminal waiting for a port-key back home, he said it was a gift for saving his daughter, that it was a very important veela tradition. The core is actually a hair form Fleur."

"What were your impressions of the girl?"

"Agile, quick with the wand -not surprising considering Beauxbatons has a duelling program- good casting, her shields were a bit sloppy, average knowledge of spells, normal for her level of education. Overall good resistance in a duel" Harry concluded.

"And of her character? Do you think escaping protection was something usual for her?" Miss Williams had questioned next

"I don't know ma'am, I only spent a few moments with her but she seemed ashamed, and her parents seemed surprised by her behaviour, so I could guess it was the first time she did it."

"Very well agent Potter consider Miss Delacour your new charge for now on, her code..." the head started but Harry interrupted her, if she thought that she could give him a new charge that easily she was wrong, he was there to protect his sister not some french girl.

"I'm sorry ma'am but I have to insist, my duty is to protect Morgana, I don't think it's prudent to change her protection specially this year with the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament so close and all those foreigners entering the UK"

"Agent Potter" the head had said with what seemed to be a calming tone but was in truth a veiled order "I'm sure that agent Weasley can take care of both her charge and yours"

"Once again ma'am this is not acceptable our policy is one agent, one charge and both Kasparov and Morgana are level one charges, besides I know Morgana's file and character better than anyone" Harry said, he could already see the head was getting exasperated but he continued anyway, he would obey if he had to but he would make sure that she got the best protection available"

"You are right, you know her best than anyone but you are also the only agent that has met Miss Delacour before. However you do have a good point our policy is one agent one charge, Weasley will take care of Morgana from now until your mission finishes, Miss Delacour will only need protection at the World Cup's final so it's just one night a day or two tops" Miss Williams said but Harry wasn't convinced yet.

"I must protest ma'am, Weasley will never agree to it, and if you were to force it upon her the mission could be hindered by her concern for her brother, besides she is too inexperienced"

"Enough agent!" Abbie exploded "Agent Weasley will do what she is told to and so are you or I'll make sure you two never take care of your relatives again. Understood?" Abbie asked, but Harry knew it wasn't really a question "now if that helps you I will make sure Morgana and Kasparov are together at all times and I will station another agent there to protect Kasparov while Weasley takes care of Morgana. I will also make sure Weasley is in top shape, so consider Fleur Delacour your new charge, she is consider a level two priority charge, but let me make this clear, her father is a very important member of the french government, the request form her protection came from the French Minister for Magic. I hear he might become minister in a few years. So if this girl was to disappear, if she is kidnapped like the other veela girls this will turn into an international incident, historically we have had a good relationship with France I want to make sure it continues this way. That is why I chose you and not anyone else for this mission, because given your previous charge you are accustomed to higher level of pressure, you are close to her age group and you already know her, you are the best for this job and I expect you to do your best, are we clear agent?" Abbie asked

"Yes ma'am." Harry said standing rigidly and with her jaw clenched.

"Good her code name will remain the same. She has a little sister, she has her own Auror escort but you are expected to keep an eye on her too. Here you have the intel we have been able to gather so far. Miss Williams had said handing him a thick dossier, too thick for Harry's taste, that could only meant troubles. "Agent Potter" the head had said before he left. "As she is a veela you are also expected to check your occlumency skills with agent Hamilton as well as your other abilities. Good luck agent, you are dismissed." That had been the end of the meeting.

* * *

From then on the week had only gone worst; first were his occlumency revision lessons: Hamilton was not a bad teacher, and was rather soft on his pupils but he also was a perfectionist which for Harry meant that he didn't pass the class until he could withstand an attack to his mind without allowing any penetration for as long as his instructor was able to hold the offensive, and then some more. As he was not a natural occlumens every new shield he created, every new invasion he stopped, any minute he passed under attack, or simply concentrating in his defences meant pain. To make matters worse once he finished he had to study french -as he would protect Aphrodite once she was in England the interactions, if any, should be in english but it was always better to know your charge's language, as when someone is under pressure or distressed they tend to revert to their mother tongue. Finally he studied his charge's file and he didn't like what he saw there.

Fleur Delacour it seemed could be in more danger while in England than it appeared at first glance; for starters she was a veela, that placed her in the radar of all the narrow-minded groups that believed that only pure-blood wizards should be allowed to use magic, or to even be free, and of those England had a fair few, the most dangerous of all Voldemort and his death eaters, but not the only one, there were also those who didn't support Voldemort but agreed with his ideals, people that, more often than not, was influent and had resources. Fleur being the daughter of an important foreign politician would serve as a fine example to the rest of the veela community and to others of the same kind, not to mention how influent Fleur's mother was in the veela community.

Apart from those Harry still had to count with the unidentified group that was kidnapping young veela girls and women all over Europe, and possibly the world, the Quidditch World Cup was the perfect place for them to act, easy to get past controls as it was estimated that over five millions of people from around the world would attend the event and of those half a million would be there to watch the final, in the stadium alone there could be around 160.000 people, which made controlling all attendants impossible. Easy to attack as the stadium was to be situated near a great plain where the tents were to be situated with no possible cover, so they just had to wait until people returned to their tents to attack, with so much people chaos would erupt after the first spell making and intervention impossible, and the time needed for controlling it too long.

All of that gave the kidnappers an excellent opportunity, and Harry was sure they would be there, as a great concentration of veela was expected, not only was Fleur and his family there, but some also attended to watch the game and other performed for the Bulgarian team in the time outs, that in Harry's professional opinion was a great treat for veela kidnapers.

But even if Harry didn't take those in account, which he did, there was still the possibility of political enemies that wanted and advantage over François Delacour for some reason and didn't mind kidnapping his family to get it, their intelligence had not found any but it was still a risk. Finally there was the possibility that someone influenced by the veela allure did something foolish.

Then there was Fleur's little sister, she was not in the age group the kidnappers targeted and shouldn't have developed the allure yet, as she was still eight years old, but she still could be targeted by Voldemort or any enemy the family had, besides her short age made her slower and a liability if they had to run. Harry decided that in spite of Fleur being the priority he should tend to Fleur's sister first as she was the more defenceless of the two.

After assessing the disadvantage Harry had spent the entire last month going over the construction plans of the stadium and information available memorizing it all calculating the exact place where the wards should be -as for security reasons not even them knew were the wards were placed- and where according to his training they will possibly end, as well as any possible weakness in the stadium construction, exits, the position of the top box, where Fleur was expected to be, where the best place to attack was, who would be in the top box apart from Fleur and her family and anything useful.

At the end he concluded that the stadium itself was very secure and while there he would only need to keep an eye on who accessed the top box, and check the wards to make sure they were intact. But the tents were another story and he would need to be hyper attentive, the best course of action if all went well was to escort the family in a diamond formation, until they reached the tent and then the Aurors will stood guard outside while he went inside with the family and checked the tent for any possible threats and then the wards, this was only necessary in the return from the stadium as level two charges didn't need protection at all times, Harry hoped the Aurors will agree.

Finally he looked at the things that could turn a possible battle in his favour there were the skills he had -those where his best weapons as no one outside of the Unit knew what they were taught -and they certainly wouldn't expect his fighting style- the presence of the Auror corps would undoubtedly help if any chaos needed to be controlled. And if things came to worst and he fell he knew that Fleur's ability with the wand will earn her a few minutes. But he didn't plan on letting that happen.

...

* * *

Harry mentally revised all those details in his head while he strolled through the dozens of tents trying to control anything and everything suspicious, nearly jumping at any sound that resembled minimally that of an spell while maintaining a façade of tranquillity -cursing his uniform that was too heavy and long and his medals that clinked away making a silent approach or a quick retreat impossible- he was already on edge and when he saw agent Wesley's red hair he snapped:

"Agent" he hissed. "Your hair is red"

"Very observant agent Potter." She whispered. " It has been that way since the day I was born."

"That is the point agent, you cannot be recognized and your family has a very characteristic shade of red hair." He said and inspected her just to add "you didn't even change your eye colour, do you think Kasparov will not recognized you?" The girl stayed silent so Harry span her around roughly and magically dyed her hair to a coal black and then span her around again to change her eyes to a clear blue. It would had been better it the hair was dyed the muggle way and the eye colour changed with a pair of lenses, as it would stand any magical means of detection but since Weasley had neglected to do it that would have to do, Harry thought. "It's your first year without seeing them isn't it?" Ginny didn't answered but nodded and Harry continued "I know it's hard but you know that it is for their own security and yours, imagine that your older brother discovered that the agent that is guarding him is actually his baby sister do you think he would take any orders you gave him seriously then?" He asked, again she didn't say anything but shook her head no. "Exactly, and that would pose a grave security problem, even worse imagine some criminal discovered who your brother is and used it against you. Listen Weasley I know it's hard but we cannot reveal our identities for a reason, we have to cut ties for a reason and a good one, I know it's hard but it's for the best." Harry sentenced and squeezed Ginny's arm. "And don't say my surname out loud ever again." For a moment the red-head remained silent but the whispered:

"What about you Harry, isn't that the wand they gave you? Won't she recognize it?"

"Are you crazy!" Harry said raising his voice. "Don't say my name you are going to blow my cover, and to answer your question no she won't, she was obliviated, she doesn't remember me or the wand. Now leave or we both will arrive late to our designed spot and don't forget that you main priority now is Morgana." After a last nod they parted ways, Ginny went to the tents from where she will accompany her charges. As Fleur was a second grade charge Harry only had to watch her during the game and the victory party but not accompany her to the top box. So he walked towards the stadium where his charge was suppose to arrive to the top box in about four minutes.

* * *

Within a few seconds Harry arrived at the stadium gates and was allowed in without any kind of control, that put him on alert, had they done the same with the Aurors and other security personnel too? If so that posed a grave security breach, he had to suppress the urge to run to the top box, people was already accessing the tribunes and if they saw a member of the security corps running chaos would surely follow. Once at the stairs that led to the top box he finally was asked to show his identification by two Aurors dressed in deep blue robes, he showed them the papers and was let trough. That they had some controls there calmed him slightly, but he still looked the Aurors up and down to see if something was out of place. Everything seemed to be correct, but by now his mind was in full alert so he climbed the stairs hurriedly and started to inspect the room: first he extracted his wand and revealed the wards to see that all was correct; everything seemed in place he could see the blue of the shield that would protect them from and intrusion from the outside, the brown of the noise cancelling spell and the almost imperceptible white of the spell that held the structure together. Next he checked the looking charms of the door, they were intact too. Finally he did a visual inspection; he searched under the seats, he checked the floor to see that they were no lose floorboards where someone could have stashed something inside and then did a spell that would reveal any dark object to make sure he hadn't missed anything. To finish his inspection he did a humenum revelio to be sure that there was no one there hided under a invisibility charm.

By the time he finished it was already time for her charge to arrive and Harry still worried about the lack of security decided to go met her by the stairs, just in case those Aurors were not really Aurors .

The first thing he noticed when Fleur's family arrived accompanied by the British Minister for Magic , Ludovic Bagman, head of The Department of Magical Games and Sports, Bartemius Crouch Sr. head of The Department of International Magical Cooperation, the ministers of Ireland and Bulgaria and their ambassadors and the representatives of the rest of countries that had participated in the semi-finals and the two most promising ones -The United States, Belgium and Italy- their families and the personnel of their respective protection details, was that the group was larger than it should had been, he soon found two young girls around Fleur's age that weren't supposed to be there. He didn't like it one bit, that meant more people to protect if something went wrong, he immediately searched for the Auror with most seniority and told him so;

"There are more people than it should be captain"

"Yes sir, the french girl asked to bring some friends at the last minute, as things are terse right now between England and France, since we didn't let their security corps to come, the ministry decide to allow them to come." The senior Auror answered Harry would have continued interrogating but Fudge cut him:

"Captain, maybe it would be best if your men waited outside so the rest of us can have more space to move around." As soon as the minister finished speaking the Aurors vacated the room and Harry could not avoid to compare them with some trained animal, at least they would mount guard outside. Even without the Aurors there more than thirty people occupied the room between personalities family and members of the Unit, fortunately the room was very spacious.

Slowly all of the guest took their seats except for the members of the Unit who opted to remain standing to have a quicker reaction if something was to happen, the Auror captain was about to close and seal the entry to the top box so no one could bother them during the game, when a hand stopped the door and three people entered. Harry distrusted them all immediately. The first two obviously pure-bloods dressed with black tunics the older of the two carrying a stick with a handle fashioned like the head of a snake, Lucius Malfoy, a known death eater and his son Draco, the main source of non lethal trouble at Hogwarts, _the minister has sunk to a new level of idiocy_ , thought Harry, _inviting a former member of the Inner Circle of Voldemort why doesn't he just cast the killing curse on himself, it will be a better way to try his luck._ Judging by the looks the other members of the Unit thought the same but Malfoy was very influent and was there because the Minister wanted him to be so they couldn't do anything. The third however was the one that worried Harry the most the young man in itself was inoffensive dressed with a grey suit bearing the crest of the ministry, and carrying a tray with coloured drinks he was obviously a waiter, there to serve the guests, the danger were the drinks he carried any of them, or even all, could be spiked with a number of potions or poisons.

One by one all the guest, minus the Auror captain and The Special Unit operatives took the offered drink, Harry watched impotently as Fleur choose a blue one that couldn't look more poisonous if it had basilisk venom in it, and, as soon as the french girl was not looking at the beverage, he casted a discrete potion detection spell in it, and smelled it to be sure the liquid was clean, then he did the same with Gabrielle's, the man who was guarding the minister smirked at hat but nodded in approbation.

At last the game started and Harry took out his binoculars all the while discreetly inching closer to Fleur and her sister to have them in reach distance in case someone was to barge through the door, when he was about two inches away he heard Fleur gasp and his heart stopped for a second but he soon realized that apparently nothing had happened to her and that she was not drinking from the damned drink.

* * *

It was an impressive game, many would say in years to come that it had been the best game they had seen in their lives maybe even the best in the entire history of quidditch, full of breath taking moments and without a clear winner until the end, and to those watching from outside it would have seemed that those seated at the top box were holding their breaths with every play just like everyone else, but not all of them were. It was after one of the most spectacular plays of the game -Krum had performed a perfect Wronsky feint to then ascend at great speed and catch the snitch thus eliminating the advantage Ireland had over Bulgaria and forcing extra time to solve the tie- that Fleur spoke to Harry for the first time in two years, although she didn't knew that at the time. "Wow! That was magnificent, he is brilliant don't you think Mister?" Fleur asked

"Yes brilliant indeed." Said Harry with a detached voice still looking through his binoculars, in truth he had not seen the play, he didn't even knew what had happened, he had just heard the cheer of the whole stadium but his vision at the time had been in a wizard seated in the stands directly in front of the top box that had suddenly casted a spell, it turned out to be nothing, just a warming charm, but it had been enough for him to miss the best play of the game -not that he had been paying attention before anyway- and to discourage Fleur to start a chat with him again for the rest of the game.

...

* * *

As the game reached its end, under the pitch, far away from the cheers and the emotions of the game fourteen people in dark green cloaks strode through the corridors that led to the locker rooms of the teams disputing the finals. They walked slowly and silently, not at all in a hurry to get to their destination, they knew they still had at least three minutes until the game ended, and half a minute more before the team's security appeared to make sure everything was in order, and the doors to the locker rooms were just ten maybe twelve seconds away, it was better to take time and observe, it was never good to rush things. They could already see the plain white double doors when they were stopped by a pair of Aurors

"I'm sorry gentlemen but you cannot be here, if you want to see the players you will have to wait until press conference or autograph's signature later on, you should leave now." He said and stepped ahead to block their way, his college however remained quiet and unmoving. Seemingly not hearing the Auror the figure that led the odd group slowly reached inside his robes and with a swift move pulled out his wand that was now aimed at the Auror's heart. Shocked by the speed of the movement the Auror reacted slower that he normally would have, but he still manage to aim his wand at the stranger's heart;

"Sir raising a wand against a member of the Auror corps is a crime I advised you to lower your wand and leave now." The Auror said more forcefully. The robed figure however appeared unaffected by the warning and not even looking at the Auror nodded at the air. Suddenly the Auror's wand left his hand and he fell to the floor face first, he was then turned around, he found himself looking at his fellow Auror who had his wand aimed at him. "What the heck are you doing agent Acker, release me right now and arrest those men!" He demanded angrily. His fellow Auror didn't answer or said anything but he could feel when he casted the spell, the last thing he saw before the death curse connected with his body was the smirk in Acker's face.

After the life left the eyes of the other man Acker did a brief reverence and opened the doors that led to the locker rooms for the other men to pass, all of them entered except the one that led the group:"Do you have the potion?" the robed man asked.

" Yes sir." Acker answered

"Good, you know what to do, now go." Without waiting another minute Acker entered the room, not even bothering to hid the body of the dead Auror, and went to the locker room of the Bulgarian team, there he directed the six man that were waiting for him -the other seven already positioned in the Irish one- to the room were the veela that performed for the team were, and looked with satisfaction as they subdued the creatures, tied them and silenced them with a spell. Now they only had to wait, in a few minutes all would be over.

* * *

After the end of the game Victor Krum was the first to enter the changing rooms, they had lost, his amazing catch of the snitch, his many manoeuvres to keep the other seeker from finding the golden ball they all had been for naught, at the end they had lost, all because their chasers didn't know how to throw the quaffle and because the hands of their keeper seemed to be made of butter. He would have a very serious chat with them later, but now he just wanted to rest before he had to go stand in the pitch making way for the victory lap for the Irish. So distracted was he that he didn't notice the seven men that were standing in front of him until he collided with one of them; "who are you and vat are you doing here? How did you get past the Aurors that are guarding the door?" the Bulgarian seeker spat, he was not in the mood for crazy fans right now. But they didn't answer "Didn't you hear me , you cannot be here." Victor said irked by the men's silence this time he did get an answer:,

"Oh I know that I shouldn't be here, but I don't care I always do what I want because I can." The man said before he pointed his wand at the player, the stunner so fast that the boy didn't even blinked and fell with his eyes open.

"Victor! What the hell is happening here? Who are you?" Acker heard someone screaming behind him, soon after he heard the thud of a body hitting the ground and then five more. "Quick" he urged them. "Undress them and let's go before someone notices something." The men promptly obeyed his orders and after dressing with the clothes of the unconscious players they pulled some hair off of the head of each of them and added them to seven different flasks full of a black liquid.

* * *

The game was over, luckily nothing had happened so far, the only thing left was the victory lap, but for Harry that was of little comfort as the hard part came now, he had to escort Fleur back to his tent among lots of people, some sad, some happy and some drunk Harry didn't know which one of those was worse, to him none was good. Harry's train of thought was interrupted by Lucius Malfoy:

"Come on Draco the game has ended we should leave." The blond man said, Harry could almost hear the hurry in his voice and that made alarms go off in his head.

"But father I want to see the victory lap, it's not every day that Ireland wins." Draco wined. "Look they are already here" Draco was right the Bulgarian players were already in the field mounted in their brooms making an air corridor in respect, for the Irish to pass through. _There is something off with the players_ thought Harry but he could not say what, it was not until the Irish flown into the pitch that he realized what it was; "they are not wearing scarves." He whispered, and it was true they didn't wore the scarves that the two finalist were supposed to exchange.

"On the ground!" The man protecting the English Minister shouted and Harry initiatively jumped bringing Fleur and Gabrielle down with him just in time, for the first spell impacted in that moment with the guards making all of those who remained standing fall. "The wards won't resist much if all of them fire at the same time we need to get out of here." The same man as before commanded and all the Unit agent's jumped into action. "Listen" the man continued. "Captain your boys will cover us while we evacuate, I want to four Aurors for each of us so we can go in diamond formation to protect the charges. Can you do that?" He asked the Auror captain and the man starting sending patronus immediately "Ok people, we leave by order of priority understood, Merlin leaves first, then the Van Damme and his plus ones, then Ferrari and his plus ones and after Clinton and his plus ones, Aphrodite and their plus ones leave last, and then the rest of the guests are yours captain, understood?" the man asked and to the perplexity of the guest that had not understood a thing they all nodded, Harry could only smirk at the muggle names used no doubt the head's idea.

"Ok go" the same man said and the two Aurors outside opened the door and started casting shields while the minister and his body guard descended the stairs at top speed although to Harry all seemed too slow, his attention torn between the wards that were about to collapse and the people who left so he knew when it was his turn. After what seemed to be an eternity but in actuality could not had been more than a minute he saw François and his wife leave "Attention ladies we are next" he said grabbing Gabrielle so they could go faster "I want you to take a hold of my robes and don't let go, in a few seconds you will be safe and sound, ready?" he called "now" he said and started to descend the stairs as fast as he could without losing Fleur or his friends. Things however didn't seem to go in his favour today because when he reached the bottom of the stairs the four Aurors that were supposed to be waiting for then where nowhere to be found, instead Harry found himself face to face with the two Aurors he that had asked him to show his identification, their wands levelled at his chest and neck.

"Hand the girls" one of them said

"Ok" Said Harry and threw Gabrielle, one of the man caught her but before he could react Harry hit his throat and crushed his knew into his head. The other fake Auror tried to cast a spell but Harry was faster and had already grabbed his arm, Harry tried to hit his arm to make him drop the wand but the man blocked him by pure instinct, the black-haired boy then changed tactics and hit his assailant face with the palm of his hand disorienting him to then use the advantage to pressure his eyes, hurting them as much as he could, the effect was almost instantaneous, the man fell to the ground howling blood licking form his eyes. Once the threat was dealt with Harry picked Gabrielle up gently from the ground and kept going his wand at the ready. Suddenly a woman scream pierced the night and Harry looked to the stands from where it came, they were the ones were his sister was supposed to be. For a brief second Harry hesitated, should he go help Ginny protect her sister, but he quickly recovered, he had enough people to protect already, his moment of indecision had been enough though as a spell connected with his body making him fly a few meters landing on his back Gabrielle on top on him, her little weight leaving him out of breath. When he recovered he saw three men pointing their wands at him, one of them an inch away from his neck. Harry pated the hand of his attacker away stood up and instinctively putting Gabrielle behind him immediately another wand was put in his neck.

"Game over boy hand the veela girls" a feminine voice said from under a green hood.

"Why do you want them?" he asked while silently casted a wingardium leviosa on Gabrielle and hurled her in Fleur's direction "Run! he shouted" and ducked at spell aimed at his head "Aguamenti" said Harry surprising his opponents and making the one with whom it collided back a few steps, taking advantage of the their shock he casted three quick confundus charms one found his target, other was blocked and the last one was dodged by the woman "Attack them!" Harry commanded the confounded man, he seemed to hesitate for a few seconds but the obeyed, Harry's will much more stronger than his own. While he took care of the man Harry duelled the robed woman. "incarcerous" Harry casted but his spell was met with a shield making it bounce harmlessly, pretificus totalus he casted again and the woman dodged but she was to slow to evade the stunner that Harry sent her way, he then tied the other two men that were still battling and put and invisibility and a tracking spell on them so his fellow Unit members could recover them for questioning.

Once he was out of their range Harry started to run, frantically searching for Fleur, he found her close to her family's tent duelling four wizards, dressed in the same green robes, that in turn where fighting two death eaters, it was when he saw the white masks that Harry saw the devastation around him and the dark mark hanging over their heads in the sky. Focusing on Fleur again. this time searching for her friends and Gabrielle, Fleur's friends were in the ground, scared and trying to hide behind a ruined tent but fine. Fleur's little sister was behind her clinging to her. now, charred robe.

As Harry had predicted Fleur had skill and could held her own but there were two battles going on at the same time and, anyone could see that Fleur had never duelled for real. Harry didn't knew how much she had been duelling those men but by the marks on her clothes there had already been a few close calls, luckily she didn't seem to have any injure. He needed to act fast, she was getting tired due to the intensity of the combat and her shields were getting weaker and weaker. Just then her shield broke and a Crucio thrown by one of the death eaters got past it, not knowing what to do Harry jumped right in the trajectory of the spell an got the full blow, not wanting to give their enemies another opportunity he clenched his teeth and casted lumos solem to blind them and then as much stunners as he could, three got their target. Before the lumos charm dissipated Harry disarmed another two with expelliarmus and broke their wands and summoned the last opponent against one of the nearby tents that collapsed trapping the man under it he then sent a petrificus totalus his way for good measure .

Once done he picked Gabrielle up and Grabbed and a shocked Fleur by the wrist using a spell to glue their hands together and then did the same to their friends. leading them as fast as he could to their tent.

Once inside Harry undid the spell and checked then for injures, they all seemed fine if a bit shaken. when he was finished he pulled a mirror out of his pocket and tried to tap it with his wand, something that proved extremely difficult since his hand had started to shake due to the effects of the cruciatus curse. After three attempts he finally was able to do it and as soon as his wand touch the mirror it emitted a light.

"Aphrodite and her plus ones are safe" he said out of breath "permission to evacuate them by port key to a secure location"

"Negative agent" the mirror replied "a ministry escort is heading your way with the charge's parents you are to wait there and then hand them the port key so they can leave, they should already be there, but they insisted in helping.

"Understood" Harry answered and the mirror went off. "Ok ladies you have to get behind the couch it will not provide much cover but at least it will give us a few minutes, come on hurry" he urged them. After making sure they were all well hid he extracted a bottle from his robes and drunk it _it's not much but it will have to_ do he thought. A few minutes later they heard noises outside and Fleur peered from the couch, Harry seeing her put her index finger in his lips and as soon as the tent entrance opened he pointed his wand at the intruder, it turned out to be François Delacour.

"Hurry Mister Delacour" Harry said lowering his wand and ushering him his wife and the Aurors that were with him "you have to go now" hearing her father's name Fleur raised from behind the couched and so did Gabrielle and their two friends, Harry hand then a small box made of wood and they did the countdown together, a few seconds after they were all gone and finally safe.

Harry breathed relieved and collapsed in a couch near him groaning because of the pain caused by the curse he had intercepted, he would rest there for a little bit and then he will search Weasley to ask her how his sister was.


	3. Aftermath

**Hello again readers;**

 **First: some of you have notized a issue with the spaces in the story, I notized too, the thing is that when I write it there are spaces they just vanish when I upload it.**

 **second I want o thank my new beta reader** HK7747 **for correcting the text so fast unabling all of you to read it today.**

 **without any further delay here you have chapter three. As always Read, Enjoy and Review, Follow and Favourite.**

* * *

 **Aftermath**

 _This is a mess, a bloody mess_. Those were the first thoughts of Abbie Williams when she apparated in the early hours of the morning to the camping grounds where the World Cup spectators' tents should have been. Where mere hours ago the air had had an intoxicating smell of excitement and many different dishes of many different countries, all she could smell now was a mix of smoke and blood that spoke of death. Where last night had been a beautiful starry sky, with occasional explosions of colour caused by fireworks, today was a mass of grey clouds that announced the threat of rain. Where before the clean, slightly warm air of summer could be breathed and felt on the skin, Abbie could only feel an atmosphere overcharged with residual magic, the feeling was so intense that she could distinguish the spells used: the killing curse (casted no doubt by Voldemort's followers), the summoning, shielding and disarming charms typical of Aurors, and the more offensive spells that were the signature of her boys and girls. She could even feel the differences in the air pressure that marked where a shield had failed or shattered, where the killing curse had reached its mark. It made her sick.

However all those sensations were nothing compared to what she saw. All around her, where hundreds of tents had once stood, only ashes, charred structures and burning fires- that Aurors frantically tried to suffocate- remained now. On the ground, through which hundreds of happy people had walked the day before, Abbie's gaze was met by abundant splashes of blood, and even some body parts -on which she didn't want to liger much- almost everywhere that, no doubt were the ones giving that rusty smell to the air. What was worse, she could still see the dead bodies of those who waited to be identified and taken to their loved ones, and even some injured people that were yet to be tended to. Abbie could distinctly hear their pained moans. Not all of them were in English or even discernible through the pain that laced the voices of the speakers, but Abbie knew what they all meant.

Some asked for companions that would never be found, others mourned a lost wife, husband, brother, sister, son, or daughter. Those among the injured that bore Auror's robes lamented their slow reflexes, their inability to save more people, every death forever engraved in their brain. There were those who didn't have anyone to mourn or ask for, those who simply asked for water out of a thirst- caused by the lack of blood in their bodies- that could never be quenched. It was indeed a mess, thought Abbie again, and now she would have to deal with the consequences.

The head of the Special Unit for Counter Attack and National Defence tore her gaze from the injured and dead bodies and looked straight ahead, to the only tent standing. Looking at it, no one would have ever said that a battle had taken place in that same field not two hours ago. The enormous navy blue tent was as big as the first floor of any house, and was decorated with golden patterns sewn in the fabric with the finest gold threads, all supported by four thick columns made of cherry tree wood. One would have thought that the other wizards were careless and that was the only reason their tents were reduced to ashes. Abby, however, knew better. The only reason this tent was standing was because it had been erected half an hour ago just to host the meeting that was about to take place. In comparison to the desolation and pain that surrounded it, the tent- which stood impassibly, guarded by two Aurors two hit wizards and two Unspeakables even now with the danger passed- seemed to be the work of a heartless builder.

Abbie walked quickly to the entrance and once she showed her credentials, which every single one of the guards insisted in seeing personally, she was allowed in. This angered Abbie greatly, where had that effectiveness been a few hours ago? On the inside the tent was even more ludicrous; the first thing Abbie noticed was the space. The interior of the tent easily doubled its exterior size. Next were the floors, made of white marble square pieces that were circled by a line of black ones, and in the middle of said floor the infamous 'M' that represented the ministry was engraved in gold. In the distance, she could even distinguish a smaller replica of the golden fountain present at the Ministry atrium. The head of the Special Unit could not think of a single practical reason for the tent to be that way.

On each side of the principal hall were two wooden doors made of some black wood, three of which had a plate of polished iron, on which the names of the three main security departments of magical UK were written: Unspeakables, Aurors and Hit Wizards. The fourth one - the one closest to the entrance on the left side, next to the hit wizards- remained unmarked. It was from this door that Abbie's right hand Ben Smith came to receive her.

Older than herself, rather short (not taller than 5'3"), well-muscled, with dark brown eyes and with hair of a tone close to chestnut, in his day Ben had been a promising spy of the Special Unit. His knowledge of a number of languages, as well as his comprehension of the cultures of the countries of origin of the organizations which he had to infiltrate allowed him to blend in seamlessly. His quick mind and wit allowed him to escape any delicate situation. It was even rumoured that he had infiltrated Grindelwald's ranks in the last years of the war. Whether this was true or simply gossip, Abbie didn't know, and as the good spy he had once been, Ben didn't tell her. However, all that ended when in action against Voldemort's Death Eaters, he had been hit in the knee by a stray bone-breaker curse.

After that and in spite of receiving the best treatments, his injury didn't allow him to move as quickly as was necessary for active duty. When Abbie found him, he was rooted behind a desk coordinating resources, his skills wasting away, for Ben's past as spy and expert in intelligence gathering gave him certain talents that she believed were precious in a post like hers; one that combined politics and public service with black ops and secrecy.

One of the most useful of these talents was perhaps Ben's well-trained poker face and mask of indifference. Contrary to most people, Ben could not only hide his emotions and reactions to given situations, Abbie had seen the man display fake emotions just as easily, and as quickly as if they were real. But the reason Abbie wanted Ben as her right hand was not this ability, but the ability he had to remain cool, gather information and analyze every situation, when everyone had already lost it, even when she herself lost control.

She knew that she could trust him to keep listening even when she was screaming her lugs out to her adversary and once she gave him a signal he would start turning all the facts he had learned against them until he tore them apart.

"How bad is it?" Abbie asked in greeting.

"Very, very bad," Ben said, passing her a dossier and then proceeded to give her the key points of it in summary. "So far we've got thirty civilians dead and close to a hundred injured. Specialized teams are still searching and tending to the injured, so these numbers could increase in the next few hours."

"Damn it," Abbie swore quietly. "Were any of the civilians killed or injured any of our charges?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"No, our boys and girls did a good job. However, Viktor Krum was attacked in the locker rooms in the minute and a half that our agent took to arrive there. Reports from the agents that were in the tribunes say the attack in the stadium originated there as well as in the Irish locker rooms."

"I knew we should have been the ones guarding that spot! Damn it!" Abbie said, punching the wall in frustration.

"We couldn't cover everything, boss," Ben consoled, matter of fact.

"I know, I know," she replied, regaining her composure. "Were there any casualties from our department?" Abbie asked, hating to do it, but needing to know.

"None," Ben answered, and Abbie breathed a sigh of relief. "Just some minor injuries, and some Death Eaters did a number on Weasley's face."

"Anything else I should know?"

"Yes, one of the casualties was one of the Aurors guarding the changing rooms and the other Auror that was supposed to be with him was reported missing, along with a few other Aurors. The Bulgarian Veela mascots are also missing."

"So this was the work of this mysterious group of kidnappers and either those Aurors were imposters or were bribed and then killed."

"So we think, yes, but the reports of our agents state that there were also Death Eaters on the scene. Boss..." Ben said before she asked something else. "After the meeting, we should discuss some of our agents' reports. There are some very interesting points there."

"Are they already in the meeting room?" Abbie asked, while nodding affirmatively to Ben's last sentence.

"Yes," Ben answered. "They are waiting for you."

"How is the mood?" she said, stopping a few feet away from the meeting room door situated in front of the tent's entrance.

"Bad, they are out for blood," he said smiling. How Ben could get thrilled with the prospect of a meeting where everyone was hell-bent in killing each other, Abbie will never know, but the fact was that he was thrilled.

In response to his answer, Abbie sighed. "Alright, who do we have today?"

"For the Unspeakables, we have an unidentified person..." Ben started but was cut off by his boss.

"Wait, did you say the Unspeakables?! What are they doing here? They were not part of this operation!" she growled, getting angry again. She had seen the door with the Unspeakables sign, but she thought that it was just the design of the tent, not an indication they were there.

"The ministry thought that the corps present at the World cup had not been enough and pretty much allowed the attack, so they asked the Unspeakables to join us today. They have already been debriefed," Ben concluded.

"'Pretty much allowed the attack?!'" Abbie screamed. "We did our job, the charges are safe! It was the Aurors' fault! Great, now we have another vulture in our pie!" Abbie scoffed.

"As I was saying," Ben continued, like nothing had happened. "This individual representing the Unspeakables covers his identity, but I believe him to be Hill, a prominent member of the Auror department in my days as spy. From what I remember, he tended to be easily swayed from one side to other. So be careful, because the Aurors and the Hit Wizards are going to blame us, and he may be on their side if he sees them winning the discussion." After saying that, Ben paused to allow Abbie time to absorb all the information.

"Representing the Hit Wizards, we have Alastor Gumboil. Tough guy, he has spent most of his career protecting Azkaban, moving prisoners from Azkaban to the court, and back. Last year, when Sirius Black escaped, he was the one leading the investigation until the Aurors took charge. Apparently, he did so well that he was promoted. Now he is the Hit Wizards' leader's right hand."

"That could be a point in our favour. He was an active agent, unlike most Unspeakables, and has been active until recently, unlike the Auror's head, so he will know who is right and who is to blame," Abbie said, but Ben wasn't so sure.

"Maybe, but if I were you, I would be careful. He is about to retire and is probably looking for a comfortable retirement. If he sees an opportunity of getting that by supporting whatever view the Ministry has in this mess, he will do it."

"You are just full of good news, aren't you?" asked Abbie annoyed.

"Next we have the Aurors' Rufus Scrimgeour. No need to give much detail on this one, he is basically going to defend the Aurors."

"Right, anyone else?" asked Abbie.

"Two more: Bartemius Crouch Sr., head of the Magical International Cooperation, who is here in place of the Minister and because of the foreign citizens killed or missing. Also, Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who has taken a personal interest in the case and is here to gather information for later prosecution of the culprits of last night's events," Ben read from the file. "She learned from Crouch, so be careful. If there is a connection between those two, this could end badly for us."

"What a party," Abbie sighed. "Shall we go in?" she asked, leading the way.

"Boss, one more thing," Ben interjected. "Do you want them to know who we are? It will make things easier, and we could always 'fix it' later," he suggested, smirking.

"Ok, we'll tell them, but I want a team of Obliviators on standby," she said, and then proceeded through the black double doors that lead to the meeting room.

The meeting had been a nightmare. It had started quite cordially, they had all introduced themselves, explained what information they wanted to clarify, and promised to catch the killers. But it was clear from the start that no one was going to take the blame, so the accusations had started quite early, with the Aurors and Hit Wizards blaming the Unit for not helping as much as they should, and Abbie telling them that the Unit's duty was to protect important people who were threatened at all times, not help other corps do their jobs. That, of course, didn't help at all, and by now all members of the meeting were openly opposing and accusing each other.

"For starters, Mr. Scrimgeour, my agents say in their reports that they asked the Auror in charge for help, and at one point no Aurors were available to help, but I think they were rather good when they wrote that. I think your Aurors didn't help, because they didn't want to! Because they were bribed!" Abbie shouted, so she could be heard.

"How dare you!" roared the man in question. "If they didn't help, which I don't believe, it was because there were a lot of people who needed protection! Tell me, who are those agents of yours? Tell me their names, so I can question them. Surely, they are lying," the head of the Auror department concluded.

"Good try, Scrimgeour, but their names, as with anything else, are secret," replied Abbie.

"Surely you could share some information with us. If we knew who those people your department is protecting are, we could help," the Unspeakable present at the table chimed in.

"It really bothers you, doesn't it? That there is something even you can't know? No thank you," Abbie answered. "Your department has had filtrations before."

"Filtrations...filtrations!" the man sputtered angrily. "Listen here, I could read your mind and find out the name of your agents and who they are protecting right now- if I so wanted- and you wouldn't even notice!" the Unspeakable- whose name was supposed to be Hill- threatened.

"Go ahead and try it, if you dare!" Abbie answered, drawing her wand.

"Please be calm," Amelia interjected, rising to stand in the middle of the two and gently lowered their wands with the open palms of her hands. Once they had lowered them, she continued. "Whether the Unit should share the identity of the people they protect or not, it's not the goal of this meeting. We are here to find out what happened last night. We want to find out how it was possible that they attacked us with so many security corps present, as well as whom the attackers were. As we are not reaching any conclusion about who should be held responsible for last night's security breach- the DMLE will take see to that- I will need you all to hand all your agents' reports over, so the DMLE can investigate the issue. In the meantime, we can focus on finding out the attackers' identities."

"That's an easy one," Alastor Gumboil grunted out. "They were Death Eaters; we all saw the mark and those black robes."

"Yes, but they were not the only ones there. My agents report that they duelled with members of an unidentified group dressed in dark green robes," Abbie argued.

"Your agents again, those agents whose identities we cannot know. Sorry if that doesn't inspire much trust with me. Maybe the Death Eaters just changed colours so we didn't recognize them," Scrimgeour said.

"Listen to yourself," the unidentified Unspeakable said. "I don't trust her agents either, but Death Eaters are all about recognition. They will never change their robes so we didn't know that they were Death Eaters."

"Besides, it makes sense," Amelia added. "That explains why the Bulgarians' Veela mascots went missing. Do we all agree?" Amelia asked, and after all had nodded said. "Well now, the only thing left to do is for you to hand me your agents' reports so my department can decide who is to blame for last night's incidents apart from the actual attackers."

"I hate to repeat myself," Abbie stated tersely. "But all information regarding my agents, and that includes their reports, is secret. There is no way to censor it and be sure that you won't be able to read it, so I have to deny you your request."

"Miss Williams, this could be brought to the Wizengamot and force you to hand the files to me." Abbie fell silent at that, but Ben chose that moment to intervene:

"Of course Miss Bones, you are in your right to do what you see fit to solve this case as always, but until you are granted permission by the Wizengamot to look into our files, law says we have to deny you access, as that could endanger our charges. Do you really want to know who is responsible for this mess?" to that, Amelia nodded. "Then look at the fact that we had to prevent an attack on our charges. I can tell you they are safe, and you can be sure we did our duty since no important figure, British or foreign, was reported missing or dead. On the other hand, Aurors and Hit Wizards, corps much larger than ours, were tasked with the protection of the whole stadium, camping grounds and the people in those places that didn't fall under our protection. Furthermore, as they have a much larger force than us, they were also told to help us. Now several Aurors were reported missing and no bodies were found-" here he was interrupted by Scrimgeour.

"Those men are MIA until the contrary can be proven."

"Silence!" Ben bellowed, irate at the interruption. "It's my turn to speak now, Auror. As I was saying, it's possible that the Aurors did do their duty but that among their ranks were several individuals that weren't actually Aurors. Thus, the responsibility falls on the Aurors to conduct an internal investigation and try to arrest the impostors. In any case, until you acquire permission to look at our files, you cannot determine if we are to blame or not, since you cannot prove we are at fault, and because you cannot see the reports, you are not going to get a special permission and thus, you are never going to look at those files. Any attempt to do so-" and here Ben looked at the Unspeakable he believed to be Hill. "-Will result in the detention of whoever tried to access said information, or- if the situation requires it- the taking down of this individual by lethal force, as the law stipulates. So far, Miss Bones, we have cooperated with the Ministry because its requests were within its power, but don't think even for a moment that we will bend to your every whim if it's not abided by the law," Ben concluded in a friendly albeit fake tone. With that, both he and Abbie walked away from the meeting room.

"Very well done, Ben," she praised him. "I knew there was a reason I kept you with me. By the way, I want them all obliviated, but just to erase our names and what we do, they need to remember the rest."

"Consider it done," he said, touching with his wand a tattoo he had on his left forearm. Abbie was about to leave when Crouch Sr. emerged from the meeting room in a hurry.

"Ah, Miss Williams, so good you are still here. It would have been quite impossible to talk to you otherwise," he said. "The Delacour family has requested that their daughter be protected by same agent as last night. Apparently, they are impressed with his job. I asked Aurors and Hit Wizards and they didn't know anything, so I figured she was protected by one of yours. I normally wouldn't ask that of your department, but things are very bad for England right now with the Veela girls missing, and as Miss Delacour is part Veela, it would not be good for us if she was to disappear too. So, if you could protect her again…" Barty concluded, almost pleadingly, but Abbie knew best it was all just an act to get her to agree.

"I thought they would be back at France by now," she said, instead of answering.

"Yes, that was what they planned, but after last night the girls' mother wants them to have a good memory of England, so she is going to take them to Diagon Alley to go shopping."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, thank you very much," Mr. Crouch answered and then added as an afterthought. "By the way, I am not supposed to know this, but Miss Delacour wants to enter the tournament, so maybe it would be best for your department to offer protection to her the whole year," he said and Abbie nodded, so typical of politicians to tell you the whole deal when you had already agreed.

Of course, Crouch will never remember it, because before she left she made a signal to Ben to tell him to erase that conversation from Crouch's mind too. When the head of the Special Unit for Counter Attack and National Defence finally left the tent, the lights of the memory charm were already flashing in the meeting room.

...

* * *

Harry had arrived at Headquarters half an hour after seeing his charge and her family vanish thanks to a port-key. Normally he would go to his room (given to him by the Unit, as they did with every active agent), but he could not rest. He had been hit twice that night. It was not the pain that bothered him, but the fact that he had hesitated, and why? He realised he knew very well it was because he had heard a scream and had immediately thought of his sister. Hesitating was never good, and in this case it had led to him being hit by an unknown attacker, leaving his charge without protection for a while.

He tried to remind himself that in the end, nothing had happened and that his charge was now safe and sound. However, there was another voice in his head that kept wondering what would have happened if the girl didn't possess the skill she had, or if he had arrived a bit later than he did. When he had finally found her, she already had a few burns in her robe, no doubt the result of spell damage. Not knowing what else to do, he had resolved to train so he never hesitated again. By then, Fleur should no longer be his charge and should be in France, but that only meant that the next time he hesitated, the one he left without protection would be his sister. So Harry had gathered eight non-active agents from the sixth year and fifth year of formation -he would had preferred agents from the eight year, but if by then you didn't have a permanent or semi-permanent charge, you were sent abroad to chase criminals- and had positioned them in pairs, two in each corner of the room and told to move and attack him how they saw fit. Now, six hours and a half later, at seven a.m., they had already done eight rounds.

Harry had won the first two with some effort, but easily enough. After that, he had added a dummy to represent his charge and make it more realistic, and then had added another to represent Gabrielle so he could have a better simulation of that night. He had lost the third one after losing his wand whilst protecting the bigger dummy- who he had decided to name Fleur just to give the exercise a more realistic tone- when one of the other agents had caught the wand he had had to stop him before he snapped it. He had then won the fifth round, but lost the three last ones. The worst, however, had been the eighth one. He had lost the sixth and seventh ones because he had been tired after nearly forty minutes in the sixth one, and half an hour in the seventh one, battling eight people that by then had decided to act as a team. But the eighth one... that time, he had lost because one of the dummies had been hit with a spell. If you lost your wand, you could always resort to hand to hand combat. If you fell, your charge had a chance to escape, but if your charge got hit it, was over, you had failed. Harry wouldn't allow that, he would keep training. Every time he lost would teach him something new he had to correct. So he told them to start again.

It was obvious they were tired and wanted to sleep, because they formed a circle and attacked all at once, hoping to hit the dummies. Harry, however, was able to cast a protego maxima and make a circular movement to shield the dummies. Fortunately, none of them had cast an unforgivable curse, or his tactic wouldn't have worked. The attackers, however, didn't take any breaks, and attacked again. This time, Harry deflected the spells and was able to hit one of them. One down, seven to go. He then tried a tactic he had used hours ago. He tried to confound one of them, but contrary to last night's opponents, this one knew how to resist such spells and it didn't work. However, it was enough to slow the one he hit a little bit, so Harry used that advantage to throw him against the wizard he was next to. Two more down five to go. From then on, Harry was forced to block the spells sent his way, as the five that were still conscious were all attacking him at the same time. For a while, Harry was frozen. He didn't know what else he could do. He was tired and drenched in sweat, and he didn't know how much longer he could maintain the shielding charm while they were all attacking him at the same time. To make matters worse, it seemed the two that had lost consciousness earlier from the collision with the wall behind them were coming to their senses.

 _What can you do Harry? Think, and think quick_ , he thought. So far, they had forced him to be defensive. He had to change that, but how? He was at a numerical disadvantage and he had the dummies to protect, which was another disadvantage. What advantages did he have? They seemed tired, not as much as him, but tired nonetheless. They had to stop briefly before casting another spell, so it was just a matter of timing when they would have to stop again. Harry waited, counting: one, two, three... they held out until ten, and that was when Harry cast a petrificus totalus on one of them, before quickly erecting his shield again. That effort, along with the previous ones, left him panting, not knowing if he would be able to do it again. One more down. Four to go, he thought, trying to summon strength from those words.

Today, it seemed, was in Harry's favour, because in that moment, Agent Weasley entered the room, calling him and distracting the agents that were about to enervate their fallen fellow, turning their backs on Harry and allowing him to stun them. It turned out the Head wanted to speak with him again. Maybe she wanted to inform him that he will be returning to his previous duties.

"They had you in a tight spot there," Ginny said. "If it wasn't for me, you may have lost a...dummy," she said, laughing.

"Don't laugh, the dummy is not important. A rock would do the same job. The important thing is what the dummy represents. Oh, and by the way I had them on the ropes, there were eight of them when we started."

"How many rounds have you done?" Ginny asked.

"Eight"

"And you won...?"

"Three," Harry answered crisply

"There you have it! If it wasn't for me, you would have lost for the sixth time!"

"I don't mind losing, Weasley. Losing teaches you things, it's better to lose here, where you can stand up again, than in the battlefield, where if you lose, you are dead. Besides, I don't see you doing it, so shut up," Harry said with a smile, then, seeing that they had already reached the Head's office, said goodbye to her.

...

* * *

"Tell us Fleur, how was it to duel for real? Yesterday we didn't have much time to ask you," Alana, one of Fleur's friends, asked excitedly while she lied down on Fleur's bed, where they were all seated.

"Yes, tell us!" Sabrina- Fleur's other friend that had accompanied her to the World Cup- as well as Gabrielle requested.

"Well, it was both exhilarating and scary. I could feel the adrenaline running through my veins and helping me cast the spells, and it felt amazing, but each time a spell came close to me, I was afraid that it would be the killing curse and I wouldn't be able to block it. I actually closed my eyes once or twice. Then, when my shield failed for real...I was frozen. If that man, the one protecting us, hadn't jumped in when he did, I don't know what would have happened," Fleur ended in a whisper.

"Who were those men in black in the top box anyway?" Sabrina asked. "I know pretty much any security corps of any country because my father used to tell me stories from when he was an Auror, but I didn't recognize them."

"Actually, I don't know," Fleur said. "My father didn't say anything about private protection, so they must work for the Ministry." She hadn't read anything in the foreign papers her father brought home about the creation of a new task force or anything either.

"So weird," Alana commented.

It is weird, thought Fleur. It wasn't the only strange thing about the man- teenager- that had protected her. There were other things, like the fact that he had been hit with the cruciatus and kept fighting anyway, or the fact that he casted relatively easy spells and yet manage to beat his opponents. The weirdest thing, however, was the pull in her magic she had felt when he had come close to her, or that feeling she had now that she had already met him, like an itching in her brain telling her to remember something that her brain had forgotten.

"Earth to Fleur," Fleur heard Sabrina say.

"What? What were you saying?"

"Nothing, just wondering what it was that had you thinking so intently."

"Nothing," she quickly said, maybe too quickly, because even Gabrielle noticed she was lying.

"Come on tell us," her little sister urged.

"You are going to think it's stupid."

"No, we promise!" Alana said. "Am I right, girls?"

"Right!" The other two answered.

Fleur sighed, knowing that she would have to tell them now.

"Don't laugh," she warned, pointing at each of them with an accusatory look. "You see, when that man- boy- came, I felt something, like a pull in my magic. It was almost like he was another Veela," she said.

"Maybe he was?" Alana suggested. This time, it was Gabrielle who answered.

"No, if he was, you two would had been even more taken with him then you already were," the younger Veela said, and then started to laugh when her sister's friends started to glare at her.

"Well, maybe it was some kind of connection or bond," Alana insisted again.

"Don't encourage her," Sabrina said. "Those thing don't exist, probably it was just a coincidence. Truth be told, the boy wasn't bad at all. If I met him again..."

"Sabrina! My sister is here!" Fleur chastised her. "Besides, there is something more… It's like I had met him before.

"Ok, ok, but didn't your mum say we're going to this place called Diagon Alley later? Maybe he has to protect us again."

"Yes, so?" Fleur challenged.

"Don't you remember the English minister telling your father that if we had any questions we could ask, and they will have to answer, most of the time at least? Maybe you could ask him if you two had met before. Fleur hadn't thought about that possibility, but found herself quite excited about the prospect of meeting the man- boy- again. Even if it was only to thank him.

* * *

 **I hope the first part of the chapter wasn't boring for you, for me it was vital to show that if there is an attack in a well protected place there as consequences, as well as that the different security corps didn't get along.**

 **Fleur starts to notice things, but you will have to wait until next chapter to see what happens.**

 **Finally in a few dais I will publish the first story of my "The Half-Good Writer Book so keep and eye open for it. I'm only going to say that the first story is title "The Hunter"**

 **xs18**


	4. Diagon Alley

**Hello readers this is the corrected version of the last chapter there are minor chnages so perhaps you should read them.**

 **I want to answer to a guest that left a review, in case you are reading, I don't think so since you didn't finished the second chapter but still here is your review:**

 **i stopped reading the moment your suppossed awesome Harry starting casting shitty first year spells and not even silently at that. Exactly how the fuck is he suppossed to protect anyone with that level of skill? Sigh, this promised but your action scenes and your concept of efficent and magical combat are just utter shit.**

 **I whish you had an account so we could disscuss this further but here goes the answer:**

 **First of all what concept of agical combat I still didn't explain any of it. What you saw in chapter two does not represent the spells Harry can cast. If you where to ask anyone versed in personal defence I think one of the frist rules he wuold teach would be to adapt to the situation, well Harry was dressed in a uniform that identified him as part of one of the prepared divisions of the ministry, his attackers were expecting him to cast powerful and rare spells what they didn't spect was for him to go simple. There are other reassons but those are revealed later in the story, do you want to know before calling what I do utter shit keep reading if not then you don't know all the information you cannot have a fully informed opininon.**

 **About not casting silently; have you never hear a poker player say, never reveal all your cards before the final play? I leave it at that.**

 **To the rest dear readers Read, Enjoy and Review, Follow and Favourite.**

 **Thank you to my beta** HK7747

* * *

 **Diagon Alley**

When she had been talking with Alana, Sabrina, and Gabrielle about potentially meeting her mysterious protector at Diagon Alley, Fleur had expected...well, in retrospect, she didn't know what she had expected, but it certainly wasn't this.

The four of them, plus her mother, had arrived at Diagon Alley ten minutes ago; so far nothing had happened. No evident protection or Auror presence, apart from the pair that normally patrolled those streets. No presentation to their escort as it was normally done; no unrecognizable black uniforms, as there had been the night before, and no magical pull.

As they strolled through the streets -which at this hour were still nearly empty of wizards and witches (the only ones there being those that needed to do last minute shopping for their businesses) - Fleur could not enjoy the exotic ambience of the foreign country, the strange sounds coming from inside the various buildings, the shops of firms she didn't recognize, the overall ancient feel the street gave, or the foreign languages and smells that travelled through the air. The French witch could not think of any of that, she could only concentrate on trying to fill that void in her chest. It was almost painful; she had experienced last night: that irresistible need to go closer to the feeling as if another part of herself was summoning her.

But she didn't feel anything, and it made her angry. It was not the fact that she couldn't feel it that bugged her, she realized, but rather the fact that she couldn't spot him anywhere. Maybe he was no longer protecting her. Perhaps they didn't have protection anymore. It made sense, since her father was back in France now; it had been her mother who had opted to stay one more day to show them a little bit more of magical England.

Fleur could not help but felt betrayed. He had saved her yesterday, he should make sure that she returned safely, she thought, and then violently shook her head. What was she thinking? They didn't knew each other, she probably was nothing more than another girl he had to protect because her father was a foreign politician. Just routine, she thought, and that thought deflated her. She was just another face, and yet, a voice in her mind kept telling her that he had taken the cruciatus curse for her. What kind of person does that? The voice asked her, and again she thought that maybe it had not been routine for him, as it hadn't been for her. Another mental voice was quick to squash her hopes, reminding her that maybe the man was just very professional and dedicated to his work, a thought that deflated her again.

It had been Sabrina who, seeing Fleur's face and mistaking her defeated gesture for a sad one, had spoken first:

"Don't worry, they are here," her friend assured her. "They are just dressed like anyone else so they cannot be spotted as our protection and give us a little privacy."

"How can you know?" the Veela asked. "All I can see are normal wizards shopping," she said, a bit more cheerful, but still skeptical.

"Don't forget, I have spent my whole life living with an ex-Auror. I know how they move. See, there," she said, pointing to a tall, seemingly average, wizard dressed in clear green robes with grey hair and ice blue eyes.

"But, how can you tell the difference?" Fleur asked, not too sure about her friend's assumption.

Sabrina just sighed and said: "You see how he is apparently looking at those potions?" Fleur nodded. "Well, he is actually checking on us in the reflection of the exposition glass. You'll see that as soon as we go past that shop, he will resume walking without buying anything."

"Wow, that is wicked, Sabrina!" Alana chimed in, a little too loudly. "How many are they?"

"Sshhh! Lower your voice!" Sabrina admonished. "Technically, what we are doing is a security breach. If I can spot them, others can too, and if they discover it, they are going to change positions, maybe even the way they look. I'm not sure I would be able to find them again, then," she said.

"Well, how many are watching us?" Alana asked again, this time in a lower tone and rearranging her hair.

"I'm not sure, I may have missed some, but so far I count four: two men and two women."

"Really?! Where?" asked Fleur, who could not see any difference in the people in the street.

"One is behind us, guarding our backs. If you were to look closely, you'll see that he is always only a few meters away from us, enough not to draw attention but not so far away that he wouldn't be able to reach us if something was to happen. My father told me this is the tactic they used and still use to follow suspects," Sabrina informed her friends, who listened, enthralled by what she was saying. "Now, the one ahead of us, I have already told you, is the one checking on us through the reflection of the exposition glasses of the shops," she continued. "The ones at the sides are the most difficult to see, because they mingle with the crowd, but I think they are those two women you see there, and there," Sabrina said, pointing to a woman with red- almost orange- hair, dressed in a dark green robe, and a blonde one, dressed in blue.

"How do you know those women are the Aurors? It could be those two men there, they are also keeping our pace and avoiding the general crowd," Alana suggested, pointing at two men right to their left.

"Yes it could be, but since the five of us are females, it makes sense that at least half of our escort are women too, and they should be placed at the sides, because if we were to go to any shop and want to try some robes for example, the men could not follow us to the changing rooms. That is why it also made sense that they are watching the flanks because it's easier to pretend that they went to the same shop as us by coincidence. It would look weird if they just fall into step or started to walk hurriedly, just to enter one shop at the same time we do."

"So is he here?" Gabrielle asked Fleur, her blue eyes gleaming.

She had always been a romantic, in spite of her young age, always wanting to be told fairy tales where there were great love stories before she went to sleep.

"No, none of the people Sabrina pointed out looks like him. One of them has similar eyes, but they are not the same. The hair's not right, and there's no pull," Fleur said dejectedly.

"Hurry up, girls!" called Apolline, who up until then had been a few meters ahead, wanting to give her daughters a little bit of privacy with their friends. "Next stop is Ollivander's! We are going to buy Gabrielle's wand," she said.

At the mention of that, the little girl all but forgot about the mysterious boy they were searching for, and hurried to her mother's side. The rest of the girls couldn't help but get in the same excited mood as Gabrielle, although Fleur could not shake her disappointment.

* * *

Harry was not in a good mood. Something that seemed to be a constant since Fleur Delacour re-entered his life. Just two hours ago- at eight a.m. - the Head had contacted him to inform him that he was to continue protecting the French girl, instead of returning to his previous duty, protecting his sister.

Harry had to admit at the time that the girl needed protection, seeing what had happened at the World Cup. However, he had been made to understand that protecting her was just a one-time thing, and he hated when things deviated from the plan, as it never meant anything good. Oddly enough, that had not been what had put him in a bad mood. What caused him to be in such a foul state was the actual reason for which he had to protect Fleur, and not Erika.

Fleur, it seemed, was going to attend Hogwarts this year, because she wanted to enter the Triwizard Tournament. What was the point of protecting her if she was going to enter into a potentially lethal competition?

In Harry's opinion, it was a waste of resources. Just some parents, overly-worried for their almost-adult daughter, that had enough resources to convince the ministry to re-assign one of their best assets to protect their child. A child that was adamant about entering the Triwizard Tournament. Absolutely ridiculous.

But, as Miss Williams had reminded him, they were not there to say what their charges could and could not do; they were there to protect them. So, for the second time that week, he had clenched his jaw and agreed with the Head.

Once the meeting had finished, he had briefly thought to go to bed and sleep, but Aphrodite was set to be in Diagon Alley at ten. Since by then, it was already eight in the morning, he reckoned there was no point in trying to go to sleep, just to rest an hour, at the most.

Now, however, he regretted that decision, and all the decisions he had made since he had come back to the headquarters last night. Although, in his defence, he could not know that he was to protect a charge in the morning, or he would have gone to sleep instead of staying up, training.

Now he was tired, angry, and all his body ached. He prayed nothing would happen today. He had to admit, however, that he was at once both amused and irked at the girls' antics. It seemed they were trying to identify the Aurors guarding them, oblivious to their peril.

Fleur, her sister, and one of her friends were not very successful. The other one, however, Harry bet she could spot an Auror a kilometre away, an impressive feat, especially for someone still in school.

Maybe Harry should talk with the Head to see if they could make an exception for her, and select her for intelligence gathering. With that focus on details, and the proper training... Harry could not continue that train of thought, because Fleur's mother had said something about their new destination: Ollivander's. He would have to hurry if he didn't want to be seen, as the others had been.

The reason he had not been spotted by Fleur's friend so far was because he didn't use any pattern to follow them. Fleur's friend was good, but she could not spot people that didn't act like Aurors, as she was not trained to do it.

Harry was so extravagantly dressed that he caught the eye of people even in Diagon Alley. He was wearing a neon yellow robe that did not reach the floor as was typical. Besides, today he had put fake earrings and was wearing sandals, not to mention his hair was died purple, so no one would have guessed he was an active agent of any department.

Sometimes, he went into shops and bought things, sometimes he went ahead of the group. Other times, he stayed behind, feigning an amiable chat. Actually, he was just asking for directions to get to certain places, just to aid the illusion that he was not part of the protection detail, whilst always keeping an eye on his charges, of course.

Ollivander's shop was another story. There was practically no visibility inside, the only point being the big window display the shop had in the front, but it didn't help much, as he was bound to attract attention if he stood in the street gaping at the wands display for a long time. There were only two and they were not that interesting.

Entering after the girls was out of the question, since that would imply that there would be a few seconds where he would not be able to see them. There should be a member of the Unit inside -as the law said that wand-makers had to be protected, since having a wand was a right, and there were few people who knew how to make one- so they should be safe for a while, but Harry didn't want let them out of his sight. After all, yesterday he had only lost them for a few minutes, and when he arrived, Fleur was duelling six people.

Besides, few grown wizards or witches went into Ollivander's shop if they didn't have a son or a daughter that needed a wand, so Ollivander's curiosity would be piqued. He prided himself on the durability of his wands, and the eagerness to see why he would need or want a new one would surpass that of creating a new one, which would, in turn, attract the attention of the rest of the group. So, Harry decided to go in ahead, that way, when Fleur and her group went in there, they would think he was a normal customer.

He had to do it quickly- so he could change the way he looked before entering- and carefully, so as to not allow his wand too much time in Ollivander's hands. He was not the best for nothing. In a few seconds, he would know what Harry's wand core was made of, and that would raise too many questions.

When Harry opened the door, everything looked the exact same as the last time he had visited the shop. It still had that gloomy feeling to it; dust was covering all, as if the place had been closed for a long time. Ollivander was nowhere to be found, but he did- however- spot the agent that was supposed to guard the old wand maker, who in turn gave him a dirty look. Moments later, Ollivander appeared from behind a shelf full of unopened wands. The man seemed surprised; he certainly was expecting a younger client.

"Good morning," Harry said politely, trying to sound casual while under his breath he counted the seconds that had to pass before Fleur entered the shop, just fifteen seconds more. "My wand doesn't seem to be working properly, and I know for a fact you are the best around here. Could you please take a look at it?" Harry asked politely.

"Your wand does not work properly?" Ollivander repeated a hint of disbelief in his voice. "Did you buy it here?" he asked.

"No sir, it's hand-made," Harry replied, but didn't elaborate much. It was bad enough that he had to tell him as much, just so a cover that would last him a day wasn't blown up.

"Ah, well then, let me see it," he said enthusiastically.

Harry took his sweet time taking his wand out, just two seconds more, and handing it to the wand maker. Ollivander took it with a light grip and started to twist it. Harry could already see those hawk-like eyes mentally dissecting his wand- listening to it, as the wand maker would say- to reveal the core, when Gabrielle entered the shop almost running, followed closely by the rest of the group. He wouldn't have noticed it, if it wasn't for the sound of the door and Fleur's audible gasp, like someone had punched her in the stomach, which made him turn.

"Oh, there's a customer already, maybe we should come back later, these things can take a while," Apolline said.

"Don't worry, let the kid go first. She seems very eager," Harry replied, snatching his wand from Ollivander's grasp. If the elder wand-maker was bothered by this, he didn't say it. He simply urged Gabrielle- who at that point was quite nervous- to come forward and with a touch of his wand, a measuring tape jumped into life, zooming around Gabrielle and taking different measurements.

"Tell me," Ollivander asked. "Are you right-handed or left-handed?"

"Right-handed," she answered clearly, which Harry found impressive. Most children were not very comfortable in Ollivander's presence. He had something in his eyes- it was almost like he could catalogue you like he catalogued wands.

"Um, you seem a tad short for an eleven year old. I would know after measuring so many of them. How old are you?"

"Eight," she said, and then fell silent again.

"Intriguing. Quite young, not English then," he stated.

It was Apolline who answered this time.

"Non, we are from France. Over there, children start learning magic sooner, but even in France, you are famous for your wands, so we didn't want to waste the opportunity to acquire one."

"Very well, then, let's try this one: 11 inch hornbeam, phoenix father core, quite rigid. Give it a wave, let's see what happens," Ollivander encouraged as he handed her the aforementioned wand.

Once he said it, Gabrielle obeyed. With just the first movement, it caused an explosion so loud, that the poor girl dropped the wand.

"No, not this one, and maybe no phoenix feathers for you. At this rate, I will have to search for a new shop when the day ends."

He then went to a self to his left and picked another wand, this one in a green box.

"Let's see what happens with this one. 10 inch cypress, unicorn hair core."

This time there was no explosion, but nothing happened either.

"No, you don't seem to have a connection with it," the wand maker said.

Twenty minutes later, it seemed poor Gabrielle didn't have a match, and was getting worried maybe she could not do magic, which was absurd, Harry thought. She did perform magic. Raw magic, granted, but it was still magic nonetheless.

Ollivander for his part, was somewhere between exasperated and excited, as far as Harry could tell. He constantly murmured things, and with each wand, he went further into the shop. Last time, it had taken him a whole minute to return. It was when he came back, and his gaze fell on Fleur, that realization dawned upon him.

"You two are sisters, aren't you?" He asked no one in particular, and then continued murmuring. "You are also Veela, I can see. That explains things, yes it does," he muttered, and then raised his voiced, his tone almost reluctant to explain whatever it was he was going to say out loud. "I didn't know you were a Veela at first, and that was what threw me off. You see, wands are sentient objects. That is why it is widely believed that it is the wand that chooses its owner and not the other way around.

"It is common for humans' wands to also have temperaments, depending on the wood and core they are made of. In fact, one may know by his or her wand how a wizard or witch is, or if one knows the craft very well, how they are likely to be in the future," he said, and paused - his lips moving but not making any sound, as if he was having a conversation with himself. "May I see your wand?" he asked Fleur.

"I...well, I guess you can" the French girl said, before reluctantly handing her wand to him. Harry tensed, now she was virtually defenceless. He started to inch closer, so he could better defend her in case of an attack, when Garrick Ollivander started talking again.

"9 ½ inches, rosewood, Veela hair core, inflexible. Yes, that is what I thought. You see, this wand tells me you are ambitious, always pursuing what you want, not giving up, quite opinionated- and passionate about those opinions too. That is why your wand is made of rosewood, but Veela are prone to have changes of heart, and change greatly over short periods of time, that is why, to compensate the inflexible wood, your wand needs a temperamental core, one that can change with you, hence the Veela hair," he finished.

"So, can you make a wand for Gabrielle?" Apolline asked.

"I believe I can, but there is a shop- quite new, it has started just this year- that specializes in rare matches. Many creatures and Veela have come to get their wands there and as far as I know, they have a 100 per cent success rate, maybe it is better for you to try there," he explained, an apologetic tone colouring his voice.

"Thank you for the advice, but I prefer that Gabrielle has a normal wand, one that cannot give her away as Veela. You know, because of what is happening, not many people know how to recognize wands, but still…" Apolline said.

"Very well then, this is going to be a challenge," Ollivander replied brightly, straightening slightly from his normally-stooped posture. "The obvious substitute for a hair would be another hair, thus many people would think that unicorn hair is the right choice, but wands with unicorn hairs need constant attention, and that would clash with the need Veela have for freedom.

"Similarly, phoenixes are very independent, that is way it didn't work very well for you. Two independent parts will never make a very good match, although they can work together at times. So, the only option left is dragon heartstring. Not very rigid, but not very pliant either. As we have a medium core, we need a rigid wood to keep it focussed. Rosewood, like your sister's would do," he elaborated, as he went to search for another wand.

This time, he came back rather quickly, carrying three boxes, all of them blue.

"Try this one first, I believe it's the better match: 12 inch rosewood, and Welsh Green heartstring. Welsh Green dragons are ferocious and protective, but not overly so. Go on, try it," he encouraged.

This time, when Gabrielle waved the wand, a bright light came out of it, which caused everyone to clap. They were about to go, when Ollivander gave an impatient Fleur her wand and not letting it go asked: "Have you ever given a hair for a wand core, child?"

Upon hearing the question, Harry's heart was on his throat. Did Ollivander see his wand core? It was impossible, he had only held it for a few seconds, surely that couldn't be enough, could it? Would he tell her?

Obliviating was not perfect, and if he jogged her memory, she could remember Paris. More importantly, how did he know that it was from her?

Harry didn't want to have a discussion with his fellow Unit member about Obliviating his charge, but he could not have access to that information. For her part, Fleur was taken aback, not expecting the question, and hesitated for a moment.

"No... No, my wand core is from my grandmother. No one from my family has needed a new wand, so I didn't give any hair. As I'm sure you know, Veela hair is only a good core when there is a direct connection between the Veela and the owner of the wand," she answered.

"Yes, indeed," the wand maker said. "How curious, how very curious," he murmured, but to Harry's relief, he went to the back of the shop before anyone could ask what was so curious.

He himself exited the shop to prepare for when the Delacour family and their plus-ones decided to leave. Behind him, he vaguely heard a door being brusquely opened and what he thought was a shouted "Wait!", but it was too late. He was already lost in the crowd, searching for the best spot to watch and act if necessary.

* * *

That night Fleur, could not sleep, as she kept tossing and turning in bed. She had felt it again: that pull. It had been that stranger, from the wand shop, she was sure of it. When he had left, she had tried to follow him, but she had lost him in the middle of the crowd.

She had begged Sabrina to help, but she had not been able to locate him. They had visited other shops: a book shop, Madame Malkin's... but she had not found him again, even though she was sure he was there; he had to be.

In the end it was time to leave, and there was still no sign of him. Fleur didn't know if she felt sad, disappointed or angry at him.

Once they were back, her mother had questioned her, not very surprising, considering her hurried exit from Ollivander's. For some reason that- again- she could not understand, she hadn't told her the truth, saying instead that all the dust in the shop had made her a bit sick, and she needed to breathe fresh air. Her mother couldn't argue with that, she had felt the same way.

She didn't know why she had lied to her mother; that was the worst part. Maybe she knew why she felt that pull, like that boy was another Veela, like he had a part of her, but she couldn't bring herself to tell her.

Now, in the middle of the night, she couldn't sleep because she kept pondering these things, because she felt she had lost an invaluable opportunity to meet her protector, because she feared that she would never feel that pull again, because she was afraid of not seeing him again. But over all because she didn't know why she felt that way. She had barely met him, after all, and yet she had the sensation that there was something missing, something she should know.

Alana, ever the optimist, had told her that at least now she knew what he looked like, but his features had not been the same as they were at the World Cup, so he would probably change it the next time, if there was a next time, too. Fleur could not help but wonder if she would ever see him again.

* * *

Harry arrived at his room after training again. It had been an interesting day, the morning more than the afternoon, and though nothing really noteworthy had happened, he always liked these days. He never knew when he could enjoy another quiet day. Besides, he had learned a lot about wandlore, something that had always fascinated him.

Looking around his room, he saw the two files he was supposed to study, at least the thicker of the two, but he knew from previous experience that once he read one, he would have to read the other. It was like there was a compulsion charm that forced him to.

So he had gone to the agent's section and gotten it. He was supposed to have a permit to get it, but he had borrowed files so many times that no one asked him anymore, it wasn't really important now, anyway.

Already too tired to do it he decided to postpone it until the next day and instead spent the last moments of consciousness looking at the framed picture in his besides table and, at the at the eyes of the person for whom he tried so hard, the reason he had agree to go into training, his idol, the person for whom he did everything, up until now he had been pretty sure that the face in the moving picture, much younger than it should be now, was proud of him. Ha was one of the best agents did well in training and had medals that none of his fellow agents had, but now he could not help but wonder if the person in the picture would approve of his current mission and his acceptance of it, he could not help but wonder if it would be disappointed with what he was doing: protecting the french girls instead of his sister. That was how sleep found him, wondering what a the person depicted in the moving photo would think.

The top file on Harry's desk- if one was to look- read the name Lily Evans, a cross engraved besides it. The picture was missing.

* * *

 **Maybe some of you think that Fleur's reaction was a bit exagerated but I think that getting in the way if a cruciatus knowingly it's like summting yourself willing to a torture instead of other person, hence the reaction.**

 **As alway plase review, follow favourite.**

 **xs18**


	5. Rumours and Files

**Hello again readers, first of all I wanted to thank you all for the response this story is getting already over 100 follows to me that is amazing let's see if we can reach the same number of favourites and reviews.**

 **I also want to thank my beta** HK7747 **for making my rough text in the story you get, you know spaces are not my thing.**

 **I still don't own Harry Potter.**

 **As always Read, Emjoy and Review, Follow and Favourite.**

* * *

 **Rumours and Files**

Hermione passed the bedroom that she and Erika shared during their stay at the Burrow. It still surprised her that Ron had invited her, considering how not two years ago, they couldn't see eye to eye. Then again, she supposed he was like that: it was either all hate or friendship with him. Of course, she had noticed that most wizards were like that. With them, most of things were black or white, evil or good.

Ron had really changed after what happened in their second year, she supposed he felt responsible and that had really changed him, at least in some aspects. Since then, he had provided insight into the magical community- that neither she nor Erika knew, even if Erika did live surrounded by magic- even if his information was not always reliable.

In truth, she didn't hold him or anyone responsible. Sure, he had said some bad things, but if she thought about it, it hadn't been that bad. He had mostly kept to his friends and they only fought when a class was involved. She conceded that- maybe- she had been bossy at the time, a fact she remembered with a smile. The fact that Erika had started a friendship with him that summer, had for some reason affected her greatly. It had made her feel left out, and then it happened.

Hermione shook her head. Now was not time for dwelling on the past. That year was behind her after all, and now she had more important things to tend to. Like, for example, why her friend had been acting so strange and depressed since the Quidditch World Cup.

It had been quite traumatic, witnessing their bodyguard being beaten up, hearing the screams of someone barely older- if not younger- than them, but there were more people there to protect them. Nothing had happened in the end, and when they had talked that night, Erika had assured her that she was ok.

Besides, now that she thought about it, she hadn't started to act that way until two days after the World Cup. It was as if she had realized something, although what it was, Hermione didn't know. If there was one thing she hated, it was not knowing about something, more so if it made Erika sad.

A whole week had passed now, and she seemed even sadder, if that was even possible. So there Hermione was, standing in their door, looking at her downbeat friend. Erika, as had been the case these past few days, was seated on her bed looking at the window, barely blinking.

At least she's dressed today, Hermione thought. She walked into the room and sat beside her friend, but struggled to find a way to strike up a conversation. Finally, she opted to go with something normal .

"Two days left to go before we're off to Hogwarts again, I'm so excited! They say there's going to be a big event this year; do you have any idea what it could be?"

"How should I know?" the other girl asked, disinterested

"Well, you do spend most of you holidays with the faculty," Hermione reasoned.

Erika initially glared at her, but quickly turned her gaze away and sighed.

"Judging by the dress robes they made us buy, and the fact that before I came here, Minerva made me learn how to dance, so that- in her words- 'you don't embarrass yourself, your date, your house and your school and end up having an overall rotten time', I suppose there is going to be some kind of formal dance," she elaborated, but her voice was absent, detached, and Hermione decided that she had enough.

"What's eating at you, Erika? You know you can talk to me," she prompted softly.

"It's nothing, just that I have been imagining things these past few years and now the fantasy is over," Erika responded, her eyes glistening.

"Oh Erika, do you want to talk about it?" the bushy-haired witch asked.

For a moment it looked as if Erika was going to stay silent, but then she spoke. However, Hermione could see that she was reluctant to share whatever it was with her.

"You remember I told you I have a brother right?" Erika asked

"Yes, Harry. Two years your elder, you haven't seen him since he was ten and you were eight, and doesn't write much either if I remember correctly." Erika smiled at that. Only Hermione could remember details like the age of someone's brother that had only been mentioned in passing. "But I thought he was away studying at another school for gifted young wizards?" she asked, confused. "Has something happened to him? Did you receive a letter?" her friend pressed on, worried.

"No, no; nothing like that. I honestly wish I had received a letter, but as you said, he barely writes. He's down to one letter every three months now; and that is if I'm lucky," she explained, disappointment and resentment colouring her voice.

"What is it, then?" her friend encouraged.

"Well..." Erika started turning red, as if she was ashamed of what she was going to say, her voice dropping to a mere whisper, so much so that Hermione had to lean closer to listen to her. "Harry was never around, but it seemed whenever I needed it most, there was always this mysterious person who came to help, like at the..." seeing her friend's face turn white, Erika stopped herself. "Well, you know when. It had always without exception been a man, so I...I started to think that maybe he was the one that was protecting me, and that for some reason, that was why he couldn't come home to spend the holidays with me. That was, until this year," she finished her head bent low.

Hermione was about to point out that it was highly unlikely, since Erika's brother was only two years older, and she doubted anyone would entrust the protection of the Girl-Who-Lived to a sixteen year old boy and- although it was very little- Harry did write, and he told Erika all about his classes, some of which took place during moments these person, had appeared. That should prove to be a quite solid alibi. However, she decided against it. It was not what her friend needed right now.

"What changed this year?" Hermione prompted

"The person that was escorting me in the World Cup, the one in black, was clearly a woman," Erika answered morosely.

"Maybe your brother was there, he might just have been dressed like an Auror," Hermione countered, surprising herself. She didn't believe even for a second that Erika's brother was protecting her, and yet here she was, giving her hope.

"I thought that too, but it makes no sense. Those people in black uniforms were obviously there to protect us, so why would he dress differently? I guess I'm just imagining things, when the truth is, maybe Harry doesn't write or come home because he doesn't want to," she conceded in a defeated whisper.

"Erika, come on, don't say that; maybe he is just very busy. A school for gifted wizards is bound to be difficult. There are those kinds of schools in the Muggle world too, and the children there...you can't begin to imagine the kind of things they learn."

"I'm sure they still go home for the summer, or for Christmas or Easter. They must send their sisters gifts on their birthdays, other than these damned spell books!" Erika retorted angrily, hurling one of the aforementioned books against the wall. Hermione felt silent "Do they Hermione?!"

"Well, yes, but the magical society is different, so maybe that is different here too," she reasoned, in an effort to cheer her friend, although if she thought about it, she didn't know why she was making excuses for Harry. In her opinion, he was a jerk that didn't seem to even remember that he had a sister. Hermione reckoned she was doing it for Erika`s sake.

"Not so different," Erika answered, tears threatening to fall. Hermione just hugged her and changed the topic.

"Hey, you know there is something that has been bugging me since the World Cup, too. You know full well how I hate not knowing things. So, when those people in black appeared in the stands to watch us, I decided to research them, since I didn't recognize them. I actually bought a book that detailed all the security corps in England for the last century. Funny thing is, I didn't find any security corps with the same initials or insignia whatsoever. Any ideas as to who it might be?"

"I have no idea," Erika replied, her tone still one of defeat, but noticeably lighter, now that the subject had changed. "Ron might know, though. His father works in the Ministry, after all," she suggested, but Hermione seemed skeptical, at best.

"Yeah, I wouldn't count on it," Hermione sighed.

As coincidence would have it, their aforementioned friend chose that moment to walk into the room to let them know dinner was ready.

"What? What wouldn't you count on?" he asked obliviously.

"Nothing!" Hermione answered quickly, a bit worried and embarrassed, since she didn't know how much of what she had said had been heard by him. Erika smiled slightly at that.

"We were just wondering if you knew something about the security agents escorting the three of us at the World Cup. You know, the ones in black," Erika explained, much to the chagrin of Hermione.

"Sure, throw me under the bus, why don't you…" Hermione muttered mutinously under her breath.

"No-nothing," Ron said all too quickly- not having heard Hermione-, which made it evident to the girls he was not telling them the truth. He was fidgeting, as he did when he knew something they didn't, and his face had lost a bit of colour, as it did when he was expecting to be scolded.

"Come on, spill it!" Hermione demanded, perhaps a tad too brusquely, but she did hate not knowing things.

"They're just rumours- and I don't want to hear another of your lectures, like the one about how fighting trolls to be selected was just stupid, or the one about why the Philosopher's Stone wasn't at Hogwarts, or the one about Sirius, for that matter," the boy began, pre-emptively defending himself.

Yes, perhaps that had been one of the side effects of what had happened their second year. Before, Ron could be found telling and retelling the craziest tales to anyone who would listen. Nowadays, he rarely opened his mouth if he was not completely sure of his opinions. As most stories in the magical world were draped in fantastic and improbable details- outlandish even for magic-, that meant he rarely shared anything, even when it was possibly true. For instance, the Philosopher's Stone turned did end up being at Hogwarts. Ron may not know that, and she was prepared to keep it that way.

"Well, you have to admit that first years battling a troll was quite absurd," Erika chimed in, still laughing at the memory.

"What did I know?! I was a first year and that was what all my older brothers said, it sounded significantly more logical at the time!" he countered, starting to snigger at his own naivety back then.

"So what is it you know?" Erika prompted him, now all business.

"As I told you, they're just rumours. Things my father would hear from time to time at the Ministry, and would later tell us, laughing. If they were true, they will have never told us," he began, still reluctant to share anything -he really didn't want to be screamed at by Hermione again, or hear one of her lectures about information sources. It had been a while since he had last heard one, and he intended to keep it that way- "so you shouldn't take it seriously. Rumour has it that there's a group within the Ministry that only answers to the Minister, and sometimes not even him. This is based on something my father heard Fudge say once, of course he could have been talking about other things.

"Much like the Unspeakables, no one is actually sure where exactly they're situated in the Ministry or who their members are. What they do is no clearer, the answer depends on who you ask; some say they keep the Muggles controlled by magic and that is why they never discover us. Others say they study ancient parchments- older than the first wizards- and that they gave them strange powers, which is how they hide their identities. One thing every single person agrees on is that they have their own team of Obliviators, in case someone finds out."

"What absolute nonsense!" Hermione spat. "You should really check your..."she started to tell him, but he cut her off.

"Hey, don't you start on me! I told you they were just rumours, and I didn't want to tell you, you lot insisted!" he complained. "By the way, I came to tell you that dinner is ready, so let's go. I'm starving," Unfortunately for him, Hermione decided to continue scolding him until they were seated at the table, and then some more. Erika just laughed, forgetting all about Harry for that day.

* * *

Harry opened his trunk to make sure he had packed everything. Normally, he wouldn't have to leave so early, but since this year he was protecting Fleur, he had to escort her from France, meaning he had to leave a day before she did, in order to be at France on time. That meant he only had e few hours before he left. He checked his mental list: trousers, ten sets of robes -half of them black or of dark colours, so as to fit with the ones the Hogwarts students wore, and half light blue or other similar tones to match the Beauxbatons' uniform. He also had a small cage- still empty, he noted- for his kneazle, she must be out wandering somewhere; a cloak, gloves, a scarf (grey), as he knew colours had meaning to Hogwarts students and he really didn't want to get in the middle of that.

Once he was done with the trunk, he repeated the same process with his small dragonhide bag. In there, he kept the most important things for the mission; the ones he had to keep secret. Although small on the exterior, it was considerably bigger on the inside, enough to keep a small cage, where Harry will transport the Crup the Unit provided. They were not among the animals that were allowed as pets inside Hogwarts, so the agents would have to keep them hidden.

All the effort was worth it, for they possessed an acute sense of smell, and thus they were a big help detecting intruders or other potential threats when they had to protect big grounds like Hogwarts. Harry had picked out his favourite one: a sand coloured one, which he sadly had to share with another two agents. He already missed protecting a level one charge; things were so much easier.

Next he checked if he had his second wand, the one he had purchased at Wands By Gregorovitch before going on a mission at Germany. He then put a 5L bottle of blond hair dye. He had decided that whilst at Hogwarts, he would be blond with green eyes. It was the most simplistic cover to ensure neither Erika, Fleur nor any of their friends would recognize him. No sense in wasting energy powering glamour charms for the whole year.

From what they had seen of him, it had always been with either his natural features or with different elaborate disguises. He also put his knife- carved out of an erumpent horn-, a uniform identical to those french Aurors wore, for when he escorted Fleur form France, and one mirroring the ones English Aurors used for when he arrived at Hogwarts, a few galleons, and the charmed mirror that would allow him to communicate with his handler at the headquarters, in case he needed anything. Checking one last time to make sure he had everything on his mental list, he closed the trunk and the bag, making a mental note to capture his kneazle before he left.

As he still had time before he had to leave, Harry went over the files on his desk. He skipped over the Hogwarts one; by now he already knew it by heart. He had read it every year before Morgana went to school, but he always enjoyed skipping to the parts where he recognized her calligraphy. He always felt some sort of connection reading her notes; it was like she was talking to him. He was very proud to see that his notes about the Chamber of Secrets were sitting below the ones his mum had made about something called the Room of Requirement.

He then stared at the other one, as if in a magical trance. Without fail, every time he read the Hogwarts files, he needed to read the excerpt on his mother. He remembered reading it for the first time, in the first weeks of training, when all had been new and hard.

He remembered reading over her notes and her marks and swearing that one day he would be like her. That one day he would make her proud. He could even see the spots where his tears had fallen on the paper all those years ago. Slowly, he traced the letters of her name and then the cross and, as always, he felt a lump on his throat. Carefully he opened the file.

In her first year protecting James Potter, although at the time it had been more watching and training than anything else, as he was not in any immediate danger. The only reason why he had a protector assigned was that he was a pure-blood. His mother's notes about him had been scant at best; there was only one important annotation: a paragraph-long report to the Head written by her, detailing the reasons why James Potter should be revoked of his right to a protector. It cited that he was more a threat himself than anything else – the report particularly focused on James' treatment of Severus Snape, who Harry knew had been a former friend of his mum's. From the way she would write about him in the following years, Harry wondered if there had been something more there- that always made Harry laugh. The second year, nothing of interest was written, just single sentence reports on the status of her charge.

He re-read the third and fourth year pages, where much longer notes were written about the supposed existence of an invisibility cloak and a map where all of the inhabitants of Hogwarts could be seen. Harry remembered freaking out when he had first read it. Such items in the wrong hands were dangerous, but after a thorough search of the school, he had concluded that such items didn't exist.

Finally, Harry arrived at the fifth year. This section spanned several pages; it had been his mother's first direct intervention, right after his father's parents were murdered. First times with a charge were always rough, and Harry figured that it had been even worse for his mum, since she had to fabricate a cover to attend Hogwarts. Fortunately, nothing overly noteworthy had happened. In spite of that, his mother's entries in the file were longer, detailing James Potter's character and her personal views. Whenever he read it, Harry always wondered if that had been where his mum had started to feel something for his father, it make him whish she had kept a diary, but he knew agents were forbidden from doing so for security reasons.

By the second year following her direct intervention, it was already plain to see for him that she loved him, although if one judged by her notes, it was not so plain for either of them. That year, there had been an attempt on his father's life, and that had caused his mother to be more protective, sometimes surpassing the boundaries of a trained agent.

By mid-sixth year it was obvious she had fallen for him, although it was not so clear if the feelings were mutual. Of course, Harry knew it was different for his mum; she had been watching James Potter for the last eleven years, so it was like she already knew him. Having to protect him didn't help as, more often than not, agents tended to develop a connection with their charges, in spite of all the lectures they received and all the conferences they attended to avoid it.

Harry was sure he even knew the moment his mum had definitely fallen for his father. There was a side note that referred to his file about him being an animagus, however the form he took when transformed was not written. It could seem unimportant, but Harry- a trained agent like his mum- knew it was a violation of their code of ethics, and he was sure that was the moment his mother had realized she loved his father. The day she failed to do her duty. There was more on the file, but Harry felt drained and decided to catch an early portkey to France. Capturing his kneazle before he left.

* * *

In that same country- in the mountains of Alsace, in the frontier with Germany- in a half-destroyed castle which was a remainder of the war against Grindelwald, a meeting was about to end. The twelve occupants of one of the main dining rooms were seated at a rectangular oak table, all silently listening to another figure standing by the head of the table.

"You all know what you have to do, so don't fail me this time, don't get captured again," the cutting female voice proclaimed, as she glared at two particular occupants of the room. "Bring me the girl, or there will be dire consequences. Our… benefactor is most displeased by the events at the World Cup, and won't tolerate more failures from this division, and neither will I. Fail, and I will poison you myself," she promised coldly, and had been about to dismiss them, when one of them dared to speak up.

"Why is this girl so important? She is only one Veela, quarter-Veela, even! We have located and captured lots of them, worth infinitely more than her!" he had the gall to say.

"My orders are not to be disputed; they are to be followed. You would do well to not forget your place, if you hope to last here," she snapped.

She could have easily explained to him the value of the girl. She could have explained that her mother was an important figure for the Veela community, always fighting for their rights. She could have explained that by kidnapping her and using her, they would be showing the rest of the wizarding world that it didn't matter how important they were, or what protection they had: they were not safe. Once they realized that, they will surrender to them and hand their children over without protest. She could explain that all to him, but didn't need to; he was just an apprentice and she the master. As such, she didn't owe explanations to any of them. So she dismissed them instead, and watched them pull their green hoods over their heads before exiting the room like the obedient dogs they were.

* * *

 **I hope you guys liked, no Fleur this chapter but you learned a bit about Harry and Erika. I promise starting next chapter there is going to be more Harry/Fleur, now it's when the story starts. Please review and let me know what you think about the chapter.**

 **I'm aware that I own you all a Harry/Fleur called "The Hunter" it's more complicated to write it than what I imagined but I'm working on it.**

 **until next time.**

 **xs18**


	6. Unwanted Visitors

**Hello reader this is the corrected version of this cahpter.**

 **As always Read, Enjoy and Review favourite and Follow let's see if we can reach 100 0f each (we are past it in follows).**

* * *

 **Unwanted Visits**

Abbie Williams looked worriedly at the stack of papers on her desk. She had already read them several times- the first time after the World Cup- but now that she had deployed her agents once more, she felt the need to go over them again.

Most of them were common reports, consisting only of one or two pages, average for a few hours of field work. Particularly detailed and worrisome, however, were Weasley's and Potter's reports. In Weasley's case, the problem that was presented to Abbie was whether she would have to relocate Weasley to another section of the unit, or even suspend her as an active agent for the foreseeable future. This would mean probably having to assign Potter back to Morgana and searching for a new Agent for Fleur Delacour, something even more complicated now than it had been a few weeks ago, due to the recent events and certain things that were told in Potter's field report.

There were certain things in Weasley's report of the incident that worried the head of The Unit: in the line of duty - protecting a Level One Charge, codenamed Morgana- she had been attacked, and brutally beaten. This attack appeared to be solely directed at her, to the point where the assailants had, at one time, ignored Morgana, Hermes – the codename used for the Level One Charge Hermione Jane Granger- and Kasparov.

Although Weasley wrote in her report that as her duty commanded, she had resisted and attacked the assailants- which could have resulted in an angered attack and in turn cause the attackers to disregard their primary objective (kidnapping Morgana) for a brief moment. Whatever the cause was, now it was Abbie's mission to conduct an internal investigation to clarify the events and if evidence was found that proved Weasley had been attacked, due to being recognized as part of the Weasley family- light supporters targeted for their views even when they were pure-bloods- Abbie would have no choice but to reassign her. An active agent whose cover had been compromised was more of a liability to the rest than an asset. Abbie looked at the parchment where the progress of the investigation regarding this case was to be reported; nothing as of yet.

Potter's report, on the other hand, was far more problematic and troublesome. Spanning five pages, he detailed how, under his watch the top box- where his charge, codenamed Aphrodite, had been at the time- had come under attack. He further affirmed that the attack had come from the locker rooms of both teams, and that the assailants were disguised as players of the teams disputing the finals. Here, he was backed by all the agents that had had a clear view of the locker rooms during the incident.

But the Head of the Special Unit of National Defence and Counter Attack already knew that. What preoccupied her was the next section of it, where Potter detailed how, after two spells, the protective charms were almost broken, and speculated that they probably fell moments after he had left. This statement was also corroborated by the report of the Auror captain also present in the top box. The captain had written that after roughly twenty spells- cast in five clusters by an estimated four casters- the protection dome felt.

From what Abbie and the research team could ascertain after the incident, the dome had been crafted just for the World Cup, and was specially designed to endure several blows by concussive forces equal to mining spells, spells that were meant to blow up rocks with minimal effort. That posed the question of whether the protection's failure was a product of tampering with the wards, or if the protection had broken because the spells used had had a force superior to those used in mining. Both questions led to equally problematic scenarios.

Agent Potter's report helped shed a little bit of light on the first question. He reported that before his charge and the other personnel arrived, he had checked the wards and stated that at the time, they had appeared to be fully functional. However, he also admitted that said inspection had been hurried, at best, and that he was by no means an expert on wards, so if the breach had been carefully done, he could have conceivably missed it. He further speculated that it was possible that, although the wards were in fact intact at the time, they could have been designed to be broken with a particular spell or combination of spells. These theories were shared by the agent who'd been assigned with protecting the Minister.

Abbie, on the other hand- having seen what had been left of the top box after the fire caused by the wards' explosion was extinguished-, was more inclined to believe that the protections had been brought down by powerful magic. The matter of what manner of magic, and how someone had been able to cast it, was still up for speculation. Again Abbie had assigned two agents- of her now dangerously-reduced staff- from the research department to investigate it. So far, they hadn't found any trace of magic, which only raised more questions than it answered.

Further into the report was where things got even worse. Not only did Agent Potter list a series of breaches of regular protocol- a view once again shared by most of her agents- but he also reported that, when it was his turn to evacuate the top box, the Aurors that were supposed to help him protect Aphrodite had failed to show and he was instead met by two people that, despite being dressed like Aurors, were clearly not law enforcement personnel. They had demanded that he hand over the "Veela" girls, disregarding the other two completely, even when it was a well- known fact that one of Fleur Delacour's guests from the World Cup, Alana Comtois, was the daughter of the Head of the French Auror corps. This particular piece of information indicated a fixation with either the Delacour girls; or a fixation with Veela in general. Neither prospect seemed to bode well at all.

Potter also stated that, after incapacitating them temporarily by a stunning spell, he had hidden them under an invisibility charm and put a tracker spell on them for later questioning. However no sign of the suspects Harry had stunned was to be found upon return to the spot. This again raised questions: had Potter not followed an appropriate course of action, which resulted in the prisoners escaping? Had they been found, somehow, by their fellow attackers and been freed? If so, how had they been able to detect the invisibility spell? Also, how were they able to get their hands on Auror robes?

In the last paragraph, he narrated how- after being briefly and forcefully separated from his charge- he had found her battling both a group of the mysterious assailants (who he believed to be the group behind the widespread Veela kidnappings) and Death Eaters. The supposed presence of Death Eaters in the battlefield was disputed, and thus it would need further investigation when the research teams were available. This scenario implied that Fleur was targeted by both the kidnappers and the Death Eaters, or- that at the very least- Voldemort's followers posed an immediate threat to Fleur. The signs did not bode well for the young girl either way.

With a sigh, Abbie Williams closed the envelope containing the reports and made it disappear. She then grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and started to write hurriedly. Once finished, she grabbed her blood quill and signed the document with it. Better safe than sorry, she figured.

* * *

Harry woke with a start in the room he was staying in at the Aurors' headquarters in Paris. It had been allocated to him while he awaited the students' departure, when he would accompany them. Looking around, he wondered what the cause of his sudden awakening was, but nothing out of the ordinary could be seen. There were few things in the room: his luggage, a chair, a desk which was situated looking out of the only window in the room, a wardrobe, and the bed. None of them appeared to have been moved or touched. He checked the time to see if his internal clock was warning him that it was time to go, but as it turned out, he still had a few hours left to rest.

For a moment, he thought that perhaps he had forgotten to sign some papers, or that he had not introduced himself to some relevant authority -that could easily blow his cover- but after checking his mental list, he was sure that he had done all he had to. Since his arrival in France a few hours ago, all had gone smoothly, a rare occurrence for Harry. As soon as he arrived, he put on the Auror uniform he had and went to the Head Auror's office.

At first, the Head Auror had been suspicious- unconvinced even. After all, he had never seen Harry, and suddenly he appeared out of nowhere pretending to be a French agent tasked with a highly sensible mission. Nothing suspicious about that, all Ministries had black ops units, after all. The problem was that he claimed that it was integral to his mission that he shadowed a specific group of students. Harry couldn't help but feel amused by how close to the truth it was.

Finally, Monsieur Allamand had relented. After all, he couldn't do anything to prevent it; the orders were signed by the Prime Minister.

After that, he had been introduced to the Captain under whom he would be stationed during the travel, and also given the file with the security details. Harry had spent the next few hours memorizing it. Then, he had decided to take a nap to freshen up, as the mission was going to last the entire night and through to the following morning. They were scheduled to arrive at Hogwarts Castle at around eight in the morning.

Suddenly, he started to feel a burning sensation in his thigh, and realized what had awoken him. Someone was trying to get a hold of him through the enchanted mirror. Strange, the mission had just started; what could require his attention so soon? Rising from the bed, Harry extracted the now-burning mirror; he carefully placed it on the bed and went to check the room, casting several spells to make sure no one was nearby. For good measure, he carefully opened the door and made sure there wasn't anyone in the hallway.

Finally, he cast a silencing spell, to ensure no one would eavesdrop on the conversation, and magically locked the door. Once he was sure it was safe, he picked the mirror, tapping it with his wand. The mirror went cool instantly, and a woman's head appeared on it.

"Good evening Agent Potter, you are quite difficult to reach. I have been tasked with telling you that you have been granted special permission to use lethal force while protecting your charge, should you require to so," she read from a slip of parchment. "We are unable to send you the physical copy of the permit- as it could endanger your current mission- but the order is nevertheless in effect. This permit has been signed and authorized by the Head of the Unit. It's only valid for the duration of your current mission, protecting the Charge codenamed Aphrodite, and will be revoked afterwards. Any questions?" She asked.

"Has the status of my charge changed?" he queried, intrigued.

"No, Aphrodite is still a Level Two Charge, but due to special circumstances, you are allowed to employ more… drastic means of protection," she answered. "If there isn't anything else, Agent, I have to cut the connection. Good luck," and with that, the woman was gone.

This change sure makes things interesting, thought Harry. Level Two assignments were rarely, if ever, granted such permits. It certainly changed the way he could protect Fleur, he thought. At that moment, seated in the bed in nothing more than a pair of boxes and a t-shirt, Harry went over all the information he had memorized about the journey to Hogwarts.

The security party was to have eight members: four would form rank on the outer catwalk of the carriage that transported the students, he himself was to be on one of the corners on the back end.

While thinking of the carriage, information popped to the front of his mind, but he forced it to the side for now. First, he had to evaluate the escort.

The other four members of the party were to guard the airborne carriage, whilst mounted on brooms. Additionally, they were to have the advantage of cloud cover to conceal them. The only thing they had to worry about was their numbers. Then again, a much larger party would have been even more problematic and much less discreet. None of them was to travel with the students, as the door would be sealed both from inside and outside before departure.

Next, Harry recalled what he knew about the carriage itself. Again, an image of it came to the forefront of his mind. Made of sturdy metal heavily enchanted to resist curses and other offensive spells, the carriage was nearly indestructible. Then again, the wards that were meant to protect the Minister at the World Cup had also been of the same nature, so for the moment, Harry suspended judgement, and assumed the carriage was not totally safe.

The main danger was the great height at which they would be travelling. If something were to happen whilst airborne, it would be impossible to evacuate the students, due to the sealing charms on the door. Undoing said charms would make the reaction time slower, not to mention that there were not enough brooms to take them all to safety on time. Harry decided, then and there, that if worst came to worst, he would try to save Fleur and would leave the rest. She was his mission, and not the others, after all.

Thinking of any problems that could crop up while in flight made him think of the winged horses that propelled the carriage. Should anything happen to the horses, Harry was sure the flying vehicle would fall. Even if just one of the horses stopped pulling, the integrity of the flight would be compromised. They would be arranged in two lines of three horses that provided equal amounts of force. If one failed, the carriage would lose its balance and eventually be at risk of falling from the sky. It was imperative that at least two Aurors guarded the horses, if something were to happen, he realized.

Harry tried to think of any other details that could either help or hinder him, but could think of nothing else. The skill and ranks of his fellow Aurors was still an unknown variable for him, and speculation would do him more harm than good. There was no way of predicting an attack -short of a seer, yet sadly, the Unit didn't have one on retainer- other than the fact that it would have to be by air, as spells cast from the ground would not be able to reach their altitude.

A sharp knock at the door broke Harry's train of thought, "Agent Desjardins, gear up. We leave in five minutes," a male voice called through the door. Harry hurriedly got dressed, and then donned the crimson robes the French Aurors wore.

A few minutes and a port key later, the group of eight Aurors were at the magnificent golden doors of Beauxbatons. There, they were greeted by an individual who appeared to be one of the faculty members. He was a short blond man with blue eyes, slightly overweight, and seemingly near his fifties. He was sporting the navy blue robes that identified him as a teacher.

He allowed them in with a flick of his wand -which he held with a loose grip, completely inappropriate for a teacher; anyone could take it from him, Harry had thought- which opened the enchanted gates for them.

Once inside, they were instructed by the captain to form rank in a corridor formation; four at each side. Their wands remained at rest; so as to not to scare the children as they stood between the entrance of the school and the carriage. An effective way of avoiding attack, although Harry doubted there would be any while at the magical school; the Carriage was much more accessible and vulnerable.

Harry looked to see if he could catch a glimpse of Fleur. She was one of the first students out, accompanied by her friends. When she was safe inside, Harry's gaze raked over the rest of the students; none of them were thought to dangerous, but one could never be too sure. When all students were aboard, the headmistress sealed the door from inside and the Auror captain did the same on the outside. The Auror escort took their positions on the corners of the carriage, and once they were in the air the four that were to go on brooms took off.

* * *

"He was not here," Fleur sighed.

She had been hoping to see the boy that had protected her in Diagon Alley and the World Cup, but he was not there. All of the Aurors were dressed in the French uniform, and seemed older than the boy was. Besides was no pull at all, from what Fleur could tell.

"I thought we had already discussed this!" Sabrina groaned, exasperated. "He can't be here. Whoever he was, he was English. He has no jurisdiction or power to be here, this is French soil, so our protection is the duty of the French Auror Corps, and- should they fail- to a lesser extent, our teachers' duty." she explained. "If anything, he would be waiting in the English border, but my dad said the Aurors are allowed to escort us to the gates of Hogwarts, provided they leave immediately after by means of portkey."

"I know, I know! It's just, sometimes I forget; if I only knew who he was! Not knowing is driving me crazy! I feel like I've met him before, but I don't know where, if it's real, or if I'm just making it all up!" Fleur elaborated, before looking through the windows, where clouds could already be seen.

"Cheer up," Alana encouraged. "You will get your chance to see him once we arrive at the castle, he's bound to be there." she added hopefully, and that made Fleur smile a little.

"Maybe not," Sabrina replied cautiously. "You are planning to enter The Triwizard Tournament; that should be enough to rescind your protection, if you still have one," she said.

"Oh come on! Let the girl dream!" Alana complained, shooting Sabrina a glare.

"Ok, I won't say anything else!" Sabrina exclaimed in defeat, holding her hands up. "Just one last thing: when you find this man- if you find him, since apparently he can change his appearance- what are you hoping to do?" she asked.

"I just want to ask him if we have met before, and where. I also want to thank him for saving me at the World Cup. He took a cruciatus curse for me; the least he deserves is some gratitude," Fleur replied carefully.

Sabrina opened and closed her mouth, hesitant to speak, before opening it once more: "Sorry to burst your bubble again, but even if you do find him and ask him, it's probable he won't answer. Half of the time, what a security corps does is a total secret to anyone outside of that respective corps. As for thanking him, I can already tell you from experience that the best way of thanking him is by not pursuing this further."

"Some friend you are" Alana bit back accusingly. "You should be helping us plan how we are going to find him."

"I just don't want Fleur to be disappointed! Because right now, I know what you are thinking! You say you want to thank him, and then what?" Sabrina countered heatedly. "You think that you will remember him and start chatting with him and reminiscing about old times?" Sabrina demanded. "He is there, working, and we are there to study and hopefully take part in tournament, not in a man hunt.

"Even if we do find him in England, he is there to ensure we are safe; nothing more. The less we bother him, the better," Sabrina stated. "Maybe you felt some weird thing when you saw him, he was handsome. Just keep in mind that nothing good could come of you approaching him."

"You said 'we', when you said 'if we do find him'. Does that mean you're going to help us?" Fleur asked excitedly.

"Like you'd be able to find him on your own," Sabrina snorted. "Just promise me this: once you thank him, that's it. Promise me you will leave the matter alone," she demanded.

"Promised," Fleur replied, without really thinking about it.

"Good, now let's go to sleep. It's nearly time," Sabrina said, miffed at her friends behaviour, before the girls retired to their rooms; Alana to the one she shared with Sabrina while Fleur retired to her own, one of the perks of being a future champion.

* * *

A few hours later, about two in the morning, Fleur woke with a start.

What was that noise? She thought drowsily. Her brain, still clouded by sleep, was going crazy with the possibilities. She once more paid attention, and this time she could distinctly hear something hitting the underside of the carriage and the sound of screams.

She rose from bed and went to her friends' room. On her way, she saw several students also up, still in their bed clothes, looking through the windows- curiosity was etched all over their faces- while the Headmistress was trying to get them to go back to bed while reassuring them that all was fine. Despite her words, worry evident on her features.

Fleur could distinguish what seemed to be spell flashes and picked up her pace.

In the room, Fleur found Alana and Sabrina already up, looking mesmerized through the window where flashes of light of all colours could be seen. They were coming from all directions: sometimes from the top of their own carriage, others from several blurry figures- presumably people mounted on brooms.

"We are under attack," Sabrina stated in a broken whisper, almost disbelievingly. Her face was pale and almost in tears, perhaps because she knew better than them what could happen.

"Don't worry," reassured Alana. "As you said before, there are Aurors here to protect us." She squeezed her friend's hand, her usual positive attitude absent from her voice.

"No, no, they are not enough," Sabrina rebuffed. Her fear was much more evident in her voice now. "They were eight and one fell at the beginning. His scream was what woke me up," she argued, crying now. "Another one went to catch him, and hasn't returned yet, so that leaves six. The attacks are coming from above and below, at least twenty, but they could be more, I don't know for sure. The Aurors won't be able to protect us," she elaborated, still looking through the window, defeat colouring her voice at this point.

Fleur went and grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the window. Sometimes being as observant as Sabrina was must be a curse.

"Come on Sabrina, calm down. Our Aurors form one of the best security corps in the world, you told me so yourself on several occasions. I'm sure they are beating whoever's attacking us," she reassured. Her friend nodded, unsure of what exactly Fleur was saying.

They sat there in silence for a minute, but the sounds of the battle raging outside was beginning to get to their nerves, to the point where Fleur couldn't take it anymore.

"If at least we could see what's happening outside more clearly…" she complained as she craned her neck to try and get a good sightline through the nearest window.

"Maybe there's a spell," Alana suggested hopefully.

Fleur racked her brain for an answer, and then one finally came to her. It was a spell her mother used to cast, to see what Gabrielle and her were up to without them knowing. It wasn't that complicated either, she just had to trace the portion of the wall she wanted to change with her wand and then think the incantation. The wall would become transparent whilst retaining all its other regular characteristics.

Once she cast the spell, Fleur wished she hadn't, as the first thing she saw was one of the Aurors mounted on the brooms get hit. His broom snapped and he began falling. The girls couldn't do anything but sit there and watch in shock.

* * *

Harry never saw the first spell, a mistake for which he would later curse himself, but he was too cold and distracted trying to get some semblance of feeling back to his hands to see it coming. He could feel it, however, and turned his head at the precise moment where one of the Aurors got stuck and fell from his broom. He knew what would come after that; he could already see it and yet his scream came too late, as if in slow motion.

"No!" he screamed, as another Auror soon began plummeting after her fallen comrade. "That's what they wanted, damn it!" he bellowed at the now-void space that had been occupied by the Auror.

After a few seconds, he turned to the Auror next to him on the other corner of the carriage: "Grab another Auror and go protect the horses! If they die, we do too! Tell the other to come help me up here on top of the carriage! Go!" he bellowed when his colleague hesitated.

Once she was moving, he climbed to the carriage roof. As soon as he was on his feet up top, he had to duck a barrage of spells, nearly falling back the way from whence he came.

What he saw- once he was able to shield himself- was his worst nightmare come true: there, in the sky, were ten people, all wearing what appeared to be green robes.

They are the ones from the World Cup! They are coming for Fleur! He thought, fear causing him to seize up for a moment. Fortunately, he snapped out of it when the other Auror arrived to help him.

"You cover me while I shoot!" he shouted, so he could be heard over the wind.

At a nod from his fellow Auror, he took stance. After he made sure he was properly covered by the shield, he fixed his sights on a particular target, waiting for a pattern so he could fire.

Gotcha! Harry thought. "Baubillious!" he cried out, a bolt instantly coming out of his wand and striking the attacker dead-on, who immediately fell from his broom

He is not getting up from that, thought Harry. Not even a single shred of regret haunting him. Whoever they were, they certainly didn't have any good intentions. He positioned himself and waited again.

* * *

It was going too slow, Harry thought. Even if most of his shoots were accurate, he could only take out one opponent at a time. So far he had taken out four, but six remained, and the wards of the carriage were now physically visible, a sign the first layer had already fallen, and that the second would soon follow.

Come on Harry what did they teach you? Spells for multiple targets… think! He could vaguely hear Hamilton telling him to use the surrounding to his advantage. It was a good advice, except here, there were no rocks to be blown apart, or water to be controlled. If he, somehow, managed to create an air current, chances were it could compromise the carriage in the process.

What if you can't use the surroundings; then what? He heard Hamilton ask him, like he had done in his second year of training dirigible spells. Harry suddenly found his answer.

"Aqua Eructo!" he exclaimed, and a stream of water came out of his wand.

The spell connected with one of the assailants, who then plummeted from his broom, but the others simply put a little distance between them and carriage. This ended up being problematic, as it caused Harry's tactic to fail -as the stream was not overly powerful- while their spells could still reach the target easily. He was about to try another spell to bring down the rest of the threats when spells started to collide with the carriage from under them.

"Impossible," Harry frowned. "At this height, they shouldn't be able to hit us," he continued speaking to himself, but another barrage of spells contradicted his objections.

"Wait here and get in cover! When you can safely move, go help the others but don't get hit! Tell them to make evasive manoeuvers, so they can't hit the carriage so easily! If you have the opportunity, grab a broom and get after them," he said to his companion, whose shielding charm was already failing.

"Ascendio!" Harry cried out, and promptly shot into the air, just as one of the attackers passed below him.

Harry grabbed the handle of the attacker's broom, and punched them, before mounting and commandeering the broom. He then descended rapidly. Time was not on their side, as he could already see cracks on the carriage's shield. Once the sky was clear of clouds, he spotted the people casting the spells.

They were situated on the top of the mountains they were now passing, and were at least five, all arranged in a semi-circle. The spells seemed to be coordinated: one blue, then orange, then red, orange again; and finally green. It was some kind of combination, the effects, and spells that composed it Harry could not guess, there was no time anyway.

At least they are all more or less together; they should be easy to take down, Harry reasoned, before descending a little further. He aimed and fired a bombarda maxima.

He could see them covering themselves, but Harry was not pointing at them, but at the rock below them. By the time they realized this, two of them had already fallen. Taking advantage of the confusion, Harry shot another bombarda at the weakened rock and made the other two fall.

Once this task was completed, he ascended again, fixing his gaze on the carriage and the remaining brooms on the sky. Just one was from an Auror, who was currently struggling with two opponents. He was trying to hit the two that were weakening the wards around the carriage.

Harry was about to shoot, when another robed figure collided with him at great speed, throwing him off the broom. Luckily, he fell on the carriage roof, but the force of the impact made him roll, and he couldn't do anything but grip one of the corners to ensure he did not to fall.

It was the end, and Harry knew it, judging by the pain he felt and its spasms, he was sure his right shoulder- the one on the arm with which he was literally hanging for life- was dislocated. He couldn't feel it, as it was numb, and not allowing him to pull himself up to the roof. He tried to find a foothold on the solid surface of the carriage, but all he could sense under him was the chill of the night air.

He was doomed, in a few minutes, his fingers would be so cold that he would involuntarily let go, If they didn't fired a spell at him first, and he will inevitably fall to his death. There was no one to catch him, Harry knew, and he knew better than to hope.

Desperately, he tried to reach with the other hand but was unable. He tried to propel himself with his feet, but the metal of the carriage was too slippery to allow it. He tried casting ascendio but he couldn't focus. The pain was too much, each spasm of his arm increasing his agony. Well, he knew this day would come. After all, the only way to leave the Unit was death. At least he would get to see his mum and dad.

For a moment, the boy closed his eyes and pictured the few images of his mum and dad that he could still remember from when he was two years old, and the pictures he had seen. His dad was playing with him and taking him on a broom, his rough hand firmly holding him, while his mother screamed frantically. His mother was holding him, rocking him, and singing a lullaby to him, her beautiful red hair falling on his face, tickling his cheek.

He could even remember the sweet smell that he had always associated with her, even the warmth of her body when she rocked him, although that could be just his imagination ...but something was off. She didn't seem happy to be looking at him; her face was not full of love as he remembered it. Instead her eyes were sad, and her features indicated disappointment.

Then Harry saw Erika, defenceless with no one to protect her. Then surprisingly, his mind pictured Fleur, as he had seen her the night she was attacked at Quidditch World Cup, duelling fiercely, but loosing none the less, overwhelmed by the number and force of the attacks. Her hair was moving wildly with each movement, her eyes jumping from her opponent to her sister, droplets of sweat rolling form her forehead, her mouth opening each time she panted because of the effort, her whole body surrounded by a fading aura of power.

Then he saw the moment her shield broke, but this time he wasn't there to stop the cruciatus curse and she fell, screaming as tears leaking from her eyes. He knew, in that moment, that he couldn't die- there were people that needed him: his sister, and his charge, Fleur.

With a scream, an almost animalistic sound that hurt his vocal cords, he used the little feeling he had in his arm to pull himself up. It was almost like using a crutch, it felt rigid underneath one's self, and it was there, but no feeling came from it, just as no feeling came from where Harry's hand was gripping the carriage. Harry was then certain there were damaged nerves in his arm. He could only hope it wasn't permanent, but now was neither the time nor the place to worry about that.

As fast as he could, he erected a shield. A split second after the energy surrounded him, three offensive spells connected with it, Harry's protego barely holding. Harry started to see black spots in his eyes; he was running out of time, as in a minute or two he will collapse. Focussing as much as he could, he thought of a spell that would fire several arrows from his wand; which would then hit the targets. Nothing happened, and Harry began to fear he didn't have enough energy left to cast it. However, just before blackness engulfed him, he saw the arrows striking the surprised enemies.

From time to time, Harry regained consciousness, only to feel pain coursing through his body before he faded back into unconsciousness. The last time he woke up, they had already arrived at the castle, and he was helped up to the infirmary. Barely aware of his surroundings, he could vaguely see the carriage now in front of him. It was being emptied of students; luckily all of them were unharmed, despite looking scared and a few in tears. He heard a cheer and applause, but it was all dampened, as if he had cotton in his ears.

* * *

"So, what do you plan to do?" Sabrina demanded

"I am just going to see if he's ok. If it weren't for him, we would be dead," Fleur said.

"Do you even know where he is?" Sabrina challenged.

"Of course I know," Fleur said, hesitantly. "He must be in the infirmary"

"Do you know where the Hogwarts infirmary is?" Sabrina asked tiredly, rubbing her temples.

"We were there before, remember?" Fleur countered, annoyed. "When they checked us to see if we were ok?"

"There are at least five Aurors wearing the robes of the French corps recovering there. Do you know which one is him?" Sabrina inquired.

"Um, maybe he is... I don't know ok!" Fleur conceded. "I...I was hoping you would help me" she added pleadingly.

"Forget it, I already helped you spot the Aurors in Diagon Alley, that was bad enough," the other girl refused. "I'm not going to help you identify him, just so you can go around Hogwarts unprotected. Not to mention that there is a great amount of open field between the castle and the carriage where anything could happen to you."

"Don't be absurd Sabrina; we are in a magical castle. There are English Aurors guarding it, nothing will happen," Alana chimed in.

"It's already night time, so the poor Aurors need to rest. I have seen my father hurt enough times to know that most of their injuries were bad, the last thing they need is you bothering them."

"Please, it would be just a minute. I'm sure it's not too bad, if they stayed here, instead of going to some kind of hospital, like Saint-Geneviève. Please?" she begged again, this time helped by Alana. Sabrina looked reluctant.

"Are you sure he is among the French Aurors?" she asked.

Fleur nodded eagerly, and Sabrina finally gave in. She had never been good under group pressure, maybe she should ask her father to train her like he trains his Aurors to resist questioning if she was to remain friends with Fleur and Alana.

"Ok," she sighed. "But you stay just a minute, and we go with you." Fleur was about to protest, but a glare from her friend cut her off. "If you want, we will wait at the door, but we are going with you. Let's get moving"

"So you know who he is?" Alana asked.

"No, but I can guess. If he is who Fleur says he is, then he was at the World Cup, and he was no Auror; he was dressed differently. The people with those robes were protecting important people. So, he was better than Aurors, or at least more trained..." she was saying, when Fleur interrupted her.

"That doesn't clarify who he is," the part-Veela girl protested.

"If you let me finish," Sabrina snapped, already unhappy with what they were doing. If her father knew, he would kill her. "As he is more skilled than the rest, he has to be the one they took from the carriage's roof," she finished.

"That one, but he was injured, while the others were relatively unharmed," Alana recalled.

"Weren't you paying attention during the battle? He was the one that took down most of the attackers. He was only injured at the end. So you have to talk with the one with an injured arm," she reasoned.

The rest of the trip to the infirmary was done in silence. When they arrived at its doors, Sabrina reminded Fleur that she was only going to wait a minute for her, and then she would come to get her, and also to be quiet, so the other Aurors could rest.

* * *

When she entered the infirmary, Fleur's heart was racing, and her breath came in rapid gasps. She felt nervous. In spite of what she had told Sabrina, she intended to ask the man where they knew each other from, if they knew each other, that is.

The prospect of finally answering that question made her feel excited and nervous all at once. As the infirmary was totally dark, not a single light illuminating it, Fleur cast a lumos spell, as quietly as she could. She searched the bed for the blond Auror. He was nowhere to be found. It couldn't be, he had to be somewhere!

He wasn't anywhere in the infirmary; she even checked the bathroom- as silently as she could- but still no trace of him. Maybe he had already been released.

Disappointed, Fleur turned to the door, ready to go, only to find the end of a wand nearly on her nose. Startled, she dropped the wand, the luminous spell ending as soon as the wand lost contact with her fingers, and she recoiled a few steps.

"What are you doing here, mademoiselle Delacour? You should be resting in the carriage with the rest of the students," the man said, casting another lumos charm and picking her wand before handing it back, the gesture obviously causing him pain. For a moment, Fleur was at a loss of words, but she quickly composed herself. She hadn't come here for nothing.

"I just wanted to thank you. If it wasn't for you, we may have died during the flight here," she said and was tempted to add, and in the World Cup, but for some reason she didn't.

"The best way to thank me is by staying where you are supposed to be, and not wandering at night putting yourself in danger. Men died protecting you and your fellow students, don't forget that," he replied, his voice hard, as he tried to sit on the bed, but hissed in pain.

The sight of the proud Auror in pain brought the image of the same man putting himself between her and an unforgivable curse, his face contorted in agony like it was now and in that instant, the full weight of his words hit Fleur. People had died protecting her; people had died because of her. This boy, barely older than her, had had to risk his life for her and here she was causing him even more pain.

Perhaps Sabrina had been right all along, she had already caused the boy enough pain. She shouldn't be there. With her head low, her blonde hair obscuring her face, she promptly exited the room and ran back to the carriage, All thoughts of interrogating the boy forgotten.

* * *

 **Don't kill me for the end. What did you thought? Did you expected it to go that way.**

 **Before you comment about it although the dislocated arm bit, how it felt etc. was taken from the web page of the Mayo Clinic I'm no doctor so there might be some unacurate things feel free to tell me, politely if you don't mind.**

 **Please review and let me know what do you think.**

 **xs18**


	7. The triwizard tournament announcement

**Hello dear readers, sorry for the scare, I'm not dead yet and and I'm not abandoning this fic either.  
**

 **Once more this is not corrected as I just finished writing since I wanted to updated it for you, in a few day the corrected version will be posted keep an eye open for it.**

 **Sorry for the huge, huge delay university was a nightmare lots of group projects to do (I hate group projects). And afterwards I didn't have energy to write, but it was you my readers still reading, follwing and favoriting who make me continue.**

 **As always Read, Enjoy, and Review, Follow, and Favorite.**

* * *

 **The triwizard tournament announcement**

The morning of September 2th, at barely eight thirty in the morning, Sabrina sat wearily in the Ravenclaw table, where most students were already eating the varied dishes scattered around -some of the english even enjoying the typical french dishes like croissants or madeleines, that their hosts had prepared in deference to the Beauxbatons students, while some of the french students ventured to try the typical english breakfast- and chatted animatedly about the classes that they would take that year, asking the locals about the teachers, how hard a subject was...

Sabrina however kept quiet and regarded the person sitting right in front of her, using, or trying too, all the little things she had picked from her father over the years and all the tricks he had actually taught her, in an effort to gauge her friend's mood and thoughts.

Fleur had not said a single word since she had stormed out of the Hogwarts infirmary yesterday night, Alana and herself had tried to extract some information from her but all they got was a "you were right Sabrina, I should have listened to you" uttered in a broken whisper before Fleur went to her room.

In other circumstances Sabrina would have basked in that acknowledgement without any trace of guilt, since it was obvious to her that she had been right all along, they shouldn't had gone wandering the Hogwarts halls in the middle of the night just to bother the french Aurors. But never in all the years they had been friends had Fleur conceded she was wrong with such defeated tone, she always searched for some tiny detail, always used the most twisted of logics so she could keep arguing until fighting was no longer an option and she had to concede victory to her or Alana.

So while she was glad that Fleur had realized that she was right and had seemingly dropped the matter of the french Auror she also worried for her friend, hence why now at almost eight thirty two in the morning she observed her so intently.

The first thing that Sabrina noticed in her friend was the darker tone of her skin under her eyes, a signal she had not slept well, but that didn't led to anything as experienced had taught Sabrina that one thing could have many causes and meanings.

Next she observed that her friends eyes were bloodshot, thus gave her a clearer picture for blood shot eyes combined with a dark tone on the skin under Fleur eyes pointed strongly to lack of sleep. Of course that was not enough evidence, this was not an exact science, blood shot eyes could also mean that her eye dried during the night, something common in some people, or that the change of weather had had an effect on her eyes. In fact it could mean many more things if it wasn't Fleur whom Sabrina was applying this tactics to, but it was and that limited the possible answers.

After those two observations Sabrina searched for more signals, Fleur she noted, had her hair dishevelled whereas before today she had always kept it strait no matter how early it was, not counting of course when she had just woken up. Thus, she suspected, was because of a lack of motivation to combed it, what caused such lack she could only speculate on.

This theory was strengthen by the fact that Fleur's uniform was wrinkled, everybody knew Madame Maxim expected the best possible aspect and attitude from all her students, and Fleur had always been the best example of this, but not today.

Sabrina noted with some jealousy that even in that state Fleur didn't look as bad as she ought to.

What gave Sabrina the final clue was her friend's attitude and the look on her eyes, Fleur was quiet, keep her gaze lowered almost all the time and ate without much interest. When, occasionally she raised her gaze Sabrina could detect hints of sadness in her eyes and saw her bows furrowed in concentration or maybe it was a sign of something else.

With those signals and what she knew of her fiend Sabrina could deduct that her friend was troubled by something, that this something saddened her somehow, that because of that she had not slept, or at least not too much and that it had something to do with her visit to the infirmary yesterday.

Given the timeline and for the commentary she had made about her being right it probably had something to do with the french Auror. Once she knew this Sabrina resolved to ask Fleur what was bothering her but as always Alana beat her to it.

"Come on Fleur you have not said a word since yesterday, and the suspense is killing me, what happened, you know, between you and the Auror?" she asked.

"Nothing" she said with a hard tone in a whisper her gaze casted downwards.

"It's obvious something did happened given your current state" Sabrina pointed out. In turn Fleur raised her gaze and looked directly at her, her eyes full of hate and rage but also of sadness, while she consciously pulled the sleeves of her uniform and tried to smooth it with her hands. "Come on Fleur, we are your friends, tell us what happened?"

"You were right, that's what happened, are you happy now?" she asked in a furious whisper but didn't add anything to clarify the situation.

"I don't understand, right about what? The Auror?" the girl asked confused. Fleur looked around her, checking if someone was eavesdropping, but all the students around them were english, so they wouldn't understand anyway and seemed to be preoccupied sorely with their breakfast, then answered.

"Yes, the Auror what else could it be" she said angrily "as you said he was not too happy to see me" the blonde girl said and Sabrina had to bite her tongue really hard so as not to say I told you so "he... he said I shouldn't be there, he...he said that french Aurors had died because of me, protecting me..." the girls said her anger dissipating, her eyes full of unshed tears. "he pointed a wand at me..."

Sabrina wanted to reassure Fleur that that was probably not what the Auror had meant but again Alana was quicker.

"Oh no sweetie, I'm sure that's not what he meant" her friend tried to reassure her.

"No, no, it's exactly what he meant, he said it, he told me not to forget that men had died protecting us" Fleur lamented. "and he was right, I shouldn't have gone there, or drag you with me...It's just...I wanted, needed to know if we have met.

"Well if he really said that he is an idiot! You only wanted to thank him" Alana snapped.

"That's what you two think" Sabrina said suddenly angered "you know Fleur for all the time you spent trying to locate this man you really don't understand him, and as for you Alana you shouldn't go around insulting a man that saved you just yesterday" Sabrina said directing a glare to their friends and no longer able to contain her thoughts said what she truly thought of the whole incident.

"You know what Fleur? He was not blaming you, only pointing the facts out, but even if he did he would have every right to do it. His fellows gave their lives for us, they probably had a family that will never see them again. And how did we repaid them leaving our very safe carriage because you wanted to interrogate a suffering Auror!" Sabrina exploded causing several people to turn their heads to look at them. their friends sat there stunned for a few moments not knowing what to say. In the end it was Fleur who broke the silence again.

"So do you really think he was not blaming me" the girl said relief and hope colouring her voice. Sabrina almost hit her head against the table

"Listen to me Fleur, but listen carefully, he was not blaming you, you didn't attack them after all, He was probably just worried about you, Hogwarts is safe, but Aurors think differently, they see dangers everywhere it's their job to do so, they are trained to do so

"But" she clarified " if he indeed was angry he would have every right to be what we did was not right, my father would kill me if he knew that Auror was probably one of his men, I can already hear his lecture, so don't ask me to do something like that again" she said.

"No, no of course not" Fleur answered quickly, her tone lighter now, still there was something bothering her "but then what did he point his wand on me?"

"You surprised him, Aurors are trained to act fast" Sabrina answered

"do you think I have time to change before class?" Fleur looking at herself and with a much happier tone.

* * *

Harry hurriedly entered the Great Hall, he was already late for his duties, damn nurse not letting him out of the infirmary until now, didn't she knew he had a charge to protect?

Once inside he scanned the Great Hall searching for the post were Aurors were supposed to be, he quickly found them, in spite of not wearing the Auror robes they were easy to locate, sitting in a table set apart from the traditional four Hogwarts had. Half of his colleges were eating while others leaned against the wall scanning the room and controlling the entrance for threats, it would not do to be attacked because they were distracted eating.

He quickly assumed his place deciding not to eat and leaning against the wall instead in a seemingly relaxed pose, then he scanned the hall for Fleur, he spotted her in the sea of blue robed students sitting at the Ravenclaw table, as always flanked by her two friends.

"You are late, so unprofessional" someone besides him interrupted him.

"Well it's not like I had a choice, that damn nurse wouldn't let me leave, it's not like I am late because I over slept, unlike you Weasley" he said smiling.

"That only happened once" she hissed "and it was on Christmas, how in hell was I supposed to know that we had to train on Christmas" she protested.

"Because you should know that we always have to train, every day, no exceptions." he remained her seriously.

"I know that now, but I was only ten at the time" she defended herself again " Anyway how are you?" she asked looking at him for the first time.

"Not that bad all things considered, the nurse, Madame Pomfrey, said that there was not nerve damage , just a dislocated arm. Luckily the numbness was only because of the great amount of pain I had been in at the time, my arm will hurt for a few days, and will be stiff even longer. But considering that if it wasn't for magic it will take months to heal it's not that bad" Harry sentenced. "Anyway what did I miss?"

"Not much, Dumbledore didn't make any announcement yesterday, the french were quite shaken and so out of respect for them he said he will make all the announcements at dinner today, when they were sure the french Aurors were ok" Ginny answered "he did introduce a new teacher of defence against the darks arts though."

Harry's gaze went immediately to the faculty table, sure enough, there, next to the headmaster sat a new teacher, whom Harry recognized as Alastor "mad eye" Moody, inwardly he cursed, if he was a threat to Fleur she would already be dead, and all because Harry had failed to see and ex-Auror sitting with the other teachers.

Wanting to make sure he hadn't missed anything else Harry looked around the room once more. He saw Draco Malfoy sitting at the Slytherin table, he would have to keep an eye on him. He also noticed Severus Snape sitting with the other faculty members but he already knew he was the potions teacher, for the experience of previous years so it didn't surprise him.

He then looked around the other tables, first the Hufflepluff one, where he saw Susan Bones the niece of the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Nothing stood out.

Finally his gaze rested in the Gryffindor table, where he immediately sought his sister out. As soon as he saw her Harry felt a not in his stomach, his sister had really changed since the last time he saw her before the summer holidays, her hair, a few tones clearer than Harry's was now longer, she seemed to have grown a few inches over the summer and was already starting to turn into a young woman. She also seemed sadder.

It had always amazed Harry how much Erika changed from one time to the next time he saw her, -although, Harry thought, observe will be a more accurate word- at times he could barely recognize her but then again he reckoned that was what happened when you barely got to see your own sister.

Trying to distract herself Harry turned his gaze to Fleur once more to make sure she was ok just to observe his sister once more seconds later.

Erika it seemed was engaged in a conversation with Hermione Granger, who was sitting at her right side. Harry mentally congratulated his sister for befriending the muggle-born, according to her file miss Granger was a very capable witch, excelling in all her classes and with a magical prowess many will kill for, she had actually been selected by The Unit but her parents had declined the offer, Harry could not think of a better ally for his sister to have given what the future had in stock for her.

Sitting in Erika's left flank was Ron Weasley, seemingly content with eating and listening to the conversation, never intervening. Harry had always wondered how they had ended up being friends, in her first year, back when they still wrote each other almost every week, Harry remembered sadly, her sister used to tell him what a jerk Ron Weasley was, how the red head used to bully Hermione, insulting her whenever he could and then at the end of that year everything changed, they suddenly became friends.

The next year instead of what a jerk Ron was Erika's letters detailed how she struggled to maintain a friendship with both Ron and Hermione, and then everything changed again they all became the best of friends. Then again Ron had been there when it counted, and that he supposed put him in Erika's and Hermione's good books.

Where would her absent brother be in Erika's books? he wondered, would she hate him, he had also been there when she needed help desperately but of course his sister didn't knew that. would she even think about him as much as he thought about her, not very probable considering he had not written to her in over three months now. Suddenly Harry felt very guilty and wanted nothing more than to run to the magical tent next to the Beauxbatons' carriage where he would live that year, to start writing a letter for his sister. He was about to bolt from the Great Hall when Weasley's voice interrupted him again. This time he welcomed, and even thanked the heavens, for the distraction.

"Your charge seems to be feeling a bit under the wheatear today" she remarked "and yet yesterday she seemed to be fine, excellent actually, maybe you should check her to make sure no one has casted a curse at her or spiked her drink."

At that alarms sounded on Harry's mind and his full attention went to the french girl, his position stiff, barely blinking his eyes zeroing on her, his gaze extracting all the information he could.

blood-shot eyes, dark undertones on the skin under her eyes, messy hair, and clothes wrinkled, probably because she had sleep with them still on. Probable restlessness and lack of sleep.

Gaze casted downwards, frown evident in her features, saddened look. Guilt.

Harry knew then that he probably was responsible, he had pointed a wand at the girl... maybe he had been too hard on her. She had just wanted to thank him.

But he had freaked out what if something happened to her on the way there, or on the way back to the carriage and he could not defend her. He had actually watched her until she was safe inside the magical carriage.

Of course she didn't knew that, she probably though he blamed her or something like that. just like his sister probably thought that he didn't care or remembered her. Guilt ate at him again. this time even worse.

Maybe he should go over there, introduce himself and apologize. As soon as that thought fully entered the conscious part of his brain he squashed it, to the girl he was a french Auror who was now at Paris, and it was better that way. The only thing he could do was what he was doing now protect her from afar until the situation dictated otherwise.

To distract himself he thought about what he could write to his sister. Maybe it was time to write to her

* * *

When the students left the Great Hall so did Harry, when Fleur and her friends attended class so did he. Potions, Ancient runes, Defence Against the Dark Arts... it was dull and interesting, easy and hard all at the same time.

Nothing that required direct action happened, and he already knew what they learned, so to Harry it was dull, but it was interesting to be able to observe the students, both french and english, interact; it was almost amusing to witness how the male students were reduced to little more than gaping dummies when in presence of Fleur. Or the rivalry between houses displayed in the corridors. The way students acted or his sister mounted on a broom. Things Harry had read on the files but never witnessed first- hand.

It was easy, no one posed a threat to Fleur so far. But it was also hard , so damn hard, to see people pointing their wands at her in lessons and controlling his learned and trained reactions not to incapacitate them, he had had to stop himself from cursing a student several times.

But more than anything it had been hard to have his sister so close and yet so far, just mere centimetres separating her from him and yet a whole world away from him, unaware of his presence. Seeing Fleur a still a little down beat and not being able to say anything.

For the first time in his life Harry wondered if he was doing the right thing.

To try to dissipate those thoughts Harry composed, or attempted to compose, a letter to his sister in his head. It had been so long, what could he write. I'm sorry. He was not sorry, regretful maybe but not sorry, he was protecting her.

For once he wanted to write something true and not some made up story about classes he had never attended or fiends that didn't exist. But what could he write?

The start was easy, first the date and then _Dear Erika;_ after that things got complicated... So complicated that when classes ended that was all he had and when the Beauxbatons students went to the carriage before diner and he finally went to his tent that was all he was able to put in a parchment.

When a student told him trough the fabric of his tent that they were heading to diner he gave up and left the paper there with just two words on it: _Dear Erika;_

* * *

Dinner, was quick, hurried even, everybody suspected what the headmaster would say, but no one knew for sure. The air was charged, the room silent, only the cutlery could be heard. For the first time many refused dessert just wanting the old wizard to speak, to say what thay had been deprived of hearing yesterday.

Finally the last plate was cleared and every gaze was on Dumbledore, willing him to speak. He, unaware or uncaring, however took his time to reach the podium were a bronze eagle sprung to live when he reached it, as if welcoming him. The great Hall was dead silent by now. When his voice finally boomed trough the room many jumped surprised.

"Eternal glory" he bellowed pausing afterwards for a greater effect "that is what awaits the winner of the triwizard tournament" he continued his public now hanging to every word he said. "Those of you who wish to enter the tournament and attain it will have to subject yourselves to the scrutiny of a judge"

This caused whispers to erupt all around the room, never had they heard of such a thing Dumbledore smiled "I present you the Goblet of Fire" he said and with and overdone gesture of his hand he opened a old chest of moth eaten wood. From within it emerged a goblet made of a clear blown wood, seemingly consumed by blue flames and yet never burning. Still no sound came from the students they were too shocked.

Meanwhile Harry admired the maestri Dumbledore had he must have been a great teacher on his time he had them at him will, they will listen whatever he had to say. "Be careful however" he said once more his voice lower but producing the same effect on the audience "for once you enter you will be alone on your endeavour and will have to see it though. Until you finish or die." There he stopped allowing whispers and conversations to broke.

After a few minutes he started again and the students felt silent once more instinctively "Many of you won't know this are you were not born yet when it happened, but next year the fall of Grindelwall on of the darkest wizards of history, to commemorate this, and to learn the lessons this experience can teach us for the future this year the tournament will be based on the war against Grindelwall" conversations erupted once more and for the first time the old wizard quietened them with a sign from his hands.

"To recreate this experience we intended to let only older students to enter, as only those off age can fight in war" many students wanted to protest in fact noise started to rise but a simple look from the headmaster made them fell silent.

"However it was pointed to me that many underage wizards and witches evaded controls and, guided by a strong sense of duty, one beyond their years, fought in the war, the same happened with our muggle counterparts. And so to honour them we will allow all of you to try and enter." he said and quickly continued cutting the cheers that started to form

"but it was also remained to me that leaders in war where no always not those who wanted to be or those who were supposed to be, the position was sometimes challenged by others and so also to honour this not all of you will be able to put your name in the goblet. First you will have to earn that right by duelling all of those who want to have that right too. Or those who your school considers are the most fit. The winners will be granted the privilege of putting his name on the goblet." he sentenced.

"Please those of you of the last year or sixth year of any school who want to enter rise" he commended only three people rose; Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts, Victor Krum from Durmstrang and Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons.

"Now challengers of any year stand up" From Durmstrang, Harry observed, no one rose showing loyal an united they were , or what level of trust on Krum they had.

From Beauxbatons nearly half or the student's body present rose, not very good for Fleur, Harry dreaded having to coordinate the security on the duels.

Two red headed twins rose from the Gryffindor table to challenge their champion,

"Lastly have the schools any suggestion as to whom their champion should be?" Dumbledore asked.

Silent. Then the unthinkable happen, the time seemed to slow down, Harry heard it clearly, there was no doubt, he even knew that it had came from the Slytherin table, and yet he couldn't fully comprehend what had been said, his mind numb. Refusing to process the name that had been uttered.

"Erika Potter!" someone had creamed.

Before he knew it Dumbledore was asking something "Miss Potter do you accept the responsibility" Harry found himself shaking his head no and saw McGonagall mirroring him and yet he heard his sister answering "yes" his worst nightmare coming true.

* * *

 **Probably not one of my best works, I couldn't make the girls part sound right, but I hope you found it good enough.**

 **Please review tell me what you think**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry for the Enormous delay, I really was not inspired, hopefully now that I have to follow a schedule once more I'll write once a week again, but I don't promise anything. I hope there is still people reading this.**

 **Thank you to the two owners of the communities that have added this story.**

 **To those of you who have followed and favorited an had not recived a PM sorry I'll write one after posting this.**

 **As always read, enjoy and review.**

* * *

 **The Consequences of The Decisions We Take**

Erika knew she should have answered negatively to Dumbledore's question, she knew that the question had only been a easy escape route that the old headmaster had offered her, she knew that whoever had asked the question had nothing good in mind when he did. It had been a Slythering who had asked, and they were not famous for their appreciation of her, or their respect for her skills.

She was also aware of what would happen once she said yes, she knew there would be screams, lectures, plans, worries...

She didn't care, she didn't care that whomever had screamed had probably done so to humiliate her, in the best of cases, and because he wanted or knew something bad would happen to her in the worst, to her the scream had provided an opportunity. The rational part of her brain knew she should have said no, but it also knew that given the chance she would say yes again. Because she was tired, she was tired of never seeing her brother, of not knowing anything about him, more than three months, nearing three month and a half now since his last letter and still nothing. So when they called her name she said yes.

As soon as she did it she regretted it, there was no guarantee that he would come even if she entered the tournament much less just for the duels. Her opportunity to escape was lost however so a few moments after her answer, when the excitement finally ended she got up with the rest of the students and slowly walked to the Gryffindor tower, fully expecting what was to come.

Erika didn't have to wait much, the entrance the Gryffindor tower common room had barely closed when Hermione finally exploded.

"What were you thinking!?" "Are you out of your mind!" she screamed so close to her hear that it almost deafened her.

"Calm down Hermione, they are just a few duels besides what could she do?" Answered Ron before Erika could say anything.

"What could she do? What could she do?!" spluttered Hermione "SAID NO OF COURSE!"

"Yeah sure, like the rest of the school would let her alone if she would have said no, I think she is safer duelling, and there are just a few duels, nothing to worry about" the red headed boy insisted. Hermione looked at him murderously and breathed in, her lungs and vocal cords forming another scream, but at the last moment she breath out and then repeated the operation twice, which seemed to, somewhat, calm her down.

"There are a lot of things to worry about Ron" Hermione said deadly calm, the pronunciation of his name sounding almost like the wheezing of a knife before stabbing its prey "for instance the fact that she will duel older an much more prepared students than her..."

"Hey! I think I can manage!" Erika protested "Dumbledore and the other teachers have been teaching me some things on the summer holidays when you were away"

"Oh, come on Erika, those where little tricks, things for you to pass time while there was no one here at Hogwarts, you don't really believe that that could match what Cedric, or any other seventh year student, knows right?!" Hermione challenged.

"And how would you know what a seventh year student knows?! Have you studied those books too?! Because on that case you could teach me a few things and the problem would be solved!" Erika said angrily.

"We wouldn't have any problem if you had said no!" Hermione retorted "What the hell were you thinking?!" Erika was about to answer when Ron cut her.

"Girls, girls, let's all calm down before you say something you will regret later" he said which earned him glares so intense form both girls that he was sure that if looks could kill he would already be buried, but he held both stares and in the end both girls collapsed into two nearby armchairs. "Good, now let's plan something like we always do, we have faced worse" he said with a half smile.

"No Ron, this time if she wants my help she has to tell me why she accepted the challenge" Hermione said.

"I'm sure it was just the spur of the moment"

"Please, we both know that Erika it's more rational than that, so Erika, tell me why or I'm not going to help you this time."

Erika opened her moth slowly, the abruptly closed it again. She wanted, she really wanted to tell them, to explain why she had acted the way she did, because Hermione was right it had been rational thinking, at least for her, what had led her to say yes, and her friends deserved to know. But she couldn't. What was she going to say?

 _I did it in a desperate attempt to lure my brother to Hogwarts form where ever he is_ , even to her, now, it sounded stupid.

"Come on say something" Hermione pressed half demanding half pleading while Erika prayed for a distraction, anything would do, because she didn't have any excuse to offer her friend. Soon enough her prayers were answered, although the alternative wasn't better, for the distraction turned out to be McGonagall marching into Gryffindor common room with a expression on her face that every single student at Hogwarts had learned to fear, one that meant that you were in trouble.

"Miss Potter could you please come with me" McGonagall said with a polite tone as if she was inviting her student to a formal dinner or a cup of tea, but after four years being her student and living at Hogwarts even longer Erika knew that the old woman was about scold her for entering the selection for the tournament, she too would demand explanations and this time Erika would have to answer. Erika silently got up and followed her.

While the navigated the Hogwarts corridors McGonagall remained silent and so did Erika on the outside although on the inside her mind was running wild.

 _I entered the qualifiers to a deadly tournament_ was the first thought to cross her mind, then she tried to reassure herself repeating the reason that had led her to do it. _It doesn't matter, it will be all worth it if Harry comes to see me._

As soon as that thought crossed her mind she remembered the flaw on her plan, the one she had seen while she was fighting with Hermione; _how is Harry supposed to know I entered the qualifiers? Is he even in England? Does his school allow him to read the papers?_ The truth wasErika didn't know the answer to any of those questions and so the bubble exploded and reality crushed her. The same thoughts going in circles again and again.

 _I entered the qualifiers to a deadly tournament, what have I done?_ She thought

 _Well it doesn't matter I won't win._ she mentally replied herself

 _But what if I get hurt in the duels? People have died duelling._

 _No, the teachers won't let anything happen to the students._ she reassured herself again.

 _Yeah, look how that went with the Chamber of Secrets._ Her mind replied mockingly.

 _Help, I need help._

 _Champions don't get help._ Her brain tortured her again.

 _In the tournament but these are the qualifiers, my friends would help me._ she thought.

 _Hermione won't help you without an explanation and you cannot give one_. Not a coherent one anyway.

This stopped when Erika heard the sound of a door opening, she was surprised to see that they were not in the Headmaster's office, where she thought McGonagall would led her, instead they were now in McGonagall's living quarters.

"Please take a seat" the teacher said indicating one of the two chairs in front of a small cherry wood desk while she sat behind, living no room for doubt this was not an amicable chat.

"Why did you did it Miss Potter? you didn't have to accept the challenge, you shouldn't have."

Erika heard worry on the teachers tone and although she knew that McGonagall meant well she couldn't avoid to be angered by that statement because anger was better than facing reality, for now.

"You don't think I'm capable of duelling just like the rest of the students? I should be even better considering you and other teachers tutor me during the holidays." She said and then remembering what Hermione had told her added "Or were those exercises you made me practice just things to kept me entertained?" she said with and accusatory tone.

"Of course not Erika" the teacher said her formality dropping "but they are not enough to defeat seventh year students either." She said raising her voice "Why did you did it? After all the close calls and incidents that have happened to you over the years why did you decided to endanger yourself? I thought you knew better considering the price you have had to pay just to be safe. Do you think your parents would approve after all they gave to make sure you were safe?"

That did it, Erika finally broke down "I just...I...I thought that if I entered Harry would come" Erika said in a mere whisper already feeling the heat rising to his face due to embarrassment.

"Harry? Your brother? But Erika you know that he is very busy with school and that if we kept you apart is for security reasons" McGonagall said in a soft tone.

"How should I know if he is busy, he doesn't answer my letters, the last I heard from him was three month ago." she protested angered.

McGonagall looked at her student sympathetically, the girl had suffered enough for a life time, first she had lost her parents, provided she had not seen it and couldn't remember much of them but still, then her uncle Sirius went to Azkaban, and Remus had had to hide due to his condition, and as that wasn't enough four years later they had sent Harry away so he could be trained leaving her without any family .

Taking pity on her McGonagall said, "Listen I'll talk to the headmaster and see what we can do, but in the meanwhile I expect you here every day after classes end, until the selection process ends, to revise and work on some spells." Upon hearing that Erika nodded energetically a smile appearing on her face.

"Make no mistake" McGonagall continued "I expect that when the moment comes you will lose, because if you enter the tournament I would not be able to help you. Only the champion and whomever ends second would be selected to put their names in the goblet, so you have to end at least third, do you understand?" Erika nodded again.

After deciding when and what they will do in their meetings McGonagall led Erika back to the Gryffindor tower, Once she entered she went to her friends again, at first Hermione was distant, reading a book but after a few brief glances it seemed that the curiosity won.

"Are you going to tell me why you did it now?" she asked "and what did McGonagall wanted"

"I'm tired Hermione, I think I will go to bed, but I promise I'll tell you tomorrow first thing in the morning, with that Erika went to her room.

...

* * *

"We failed again!" The angered scream resounded on the walls of the half destroyed castle "how is it possible?! This time you only had to deal with mere Aurors, there was no Unit personnel, so why did you failed?!" the women screamed again at the people in front of her, piercing them with her eyes.

"There was a very skilled french Auror, if I didn't knew better I would say That he was a member of the Unit" one on them answered, barely standing injures and burns still evident in the visible parts of his body a heavy bandage covering his hand.

Irked by the answer the woman considered killing him to make an example of him, he had failed after all, but quickly dismissed they had lost enough men trying to capture the girl, instead she heatedly replied "you attacked them by surprise, the plan was to take the carriage, kidnap the girl and let the other students crash into the mountains, what happened?"

Another man stepped out and spoke "At first all went according to plan we surprised then and manage to make a breach in the protective escort that accompanied them, but the carriage was better protected than we expected, the door was sealed on both sides."

"That doesn't explain why you failed, a sealing charm should be easy to break with your new wands!" she replied.

"yes but it was impossible for us to remain on the carriage more than a few seconds, as Johnson has explained there was a very capable Auror guarding them, he recovered quickly and organized the defence with tactics that I had never seen, they certainly don't teach those in the Auror academy." he said.

"Alright you can leave, recover and train, Our superior and I will decide what to do with you" One by one all but one of them started to leave, when Johnson was about to leave the woman casted a spell and he felt to the floor screaming, _it won't kill him but he would learn_ she thought, after a few minutes the rest of the men dragged a barely conscious Johnson away, leaving the woman and the man who appeared to be the leader alone in the room.

"How many did we lost this time?" the woman asked

"Five, as you have seen there are several more injured" the man answered " If you allow me to make a suggestion" he continued "our informants say they are holding duels at Hogwarts to see who gets to compete in the tournament we could attack during the duels" he suggested.

"I already thought about that" she snapped "it's too soon, with your last failure we exposed ourselves too much, and if, as your man said, the Unit is guarding the Delacour girl we have to be careful, we have business close to Hogwarts that we don't want exposed. Besides I have to report this last failure to our superior first, he won't be pleased." she said while she sat behind and old desk with no chairs in front of it "leave, and prepare everything for my voyage" the woman commanded and he quickly complied.

...

* * *

Abby Williams was about to leave her office when someone knocked on her door, sighting he shrugged off her coat and sat behind her desk again "enter" she said trying to hide her discontent, her late visitor turned to be her right hand, Ben.

"Sorry boss, I know it's late but I finally have the information you requested, and there are interesting news from Hogwarts" he said handing one file to her and sitting on a chair opening another one. After a nod from the head he proceeded "first the obliviations we practiced to the heads of the departments after our meeting with them after the incident of the world cup have been successful, after a few days following them our agents report that they don't seem to remember anything they shouldn't, in any case we will watch them for a few more days." he reported.

"Good, now tell me what did you gather on the attack on the Delacour girl?"

"As you requested, and as agent Potter is under only emergency contact only basis, I gathered the reports from the french Aurors; they were attacked by surprised it seems and one of the Aurors broke the formation, fortunately agent Desjardins, the alias we gave Potter, reacted quickly and was able to fight them off."

"It says here that at one point they were attacked from the mountains above them, how is that possible? No spell should be able to reach so much height" Abbie said

I don't know boss but it worries me, first they were able to destroy the protection on the top box and now this... those people are a dangerous threat."

"How did they know the route of the carriage, was there any unusual communication from our agents"

"No, the only one who used the enchanted mirror during that period of time or before was Potter but that was expected as it was when we his handler told him the change in his operation orders.

"So the french Aurors have a mole" Abby said.

"So it would appear should we tip off the french?" Ben asked-

"No, if they look to closely they might discover that agent Desjardins was never actually in the carriage but was rather kidnapped and then obliviated. Let it be for no, the charges are in England now, so for now it doesn't matter if the french have filtrations or not, but we will have to look at it.

"Very well boss" Ben replied

"No, death eaters this time, it seems the french ministry was right to worry about miss Delacour, let agent Potter's handler know so she informs him whenever she considers appropriate and make the intelligence division look into this unknown group and how comes they have so much fire power, in England they appeared a year ago but they had to form somewhere, see what they can find out." Abbie said reading over the file.

"Yes boss, should we raise miss Delacour level to a level one?"

"No, not yet, it would be troublesome, as she is a foreigner and wants to enter the triwizard tournament, it would be difficult to justify her protection. Any news from your Auror contact?" the Head of the Special Unit asked.

"They don't seem to have any clues about this group, so far no missing veela has been found either alive nor dead, why they kidnap only veela and with what purposes is still unknown..."

"To sum up they don't know anything" Abby cut him.

"No, they don't" Ben admitted "my contact says that if the situations continues like this they would soon hand the case over to us"

"Good, if the intelligence section finds out something don't let the Aurors know, I know it's common practice to share information but we don't know who we can trust" Ben only replied with a nod. "Now tell me what were those interesting news from Hogwarts?"

"Weasley sent an emergency communication informing her handler that Erika Potter entered the qualifiers for the Triwizard tournament"

"What?! Why?" Abby asked her brow furrowed.

"Her motivation it's still unknown, but it seems a student challenged her" Ben answered.

"The qualifiers were set to be series of duels between students right?" Abby said.

"yes , nothing to worry so far"

"Ok, I trust Weasley has already been given instructions from her handler"

"Yes, the usual, keep an eye open for illegal spells in the duels etc."

"Alright, let's pray the Potter girl doesn't win."

"Do you think she could win?" Ben asked.

" You never know, she is supposed to have some special power according to the prophecy" seeing the sceptical look Ben gave her she added "or someone could pay or incapacitate the other students to make potter enter the tournament"

"Anything else boss"

"Yes" Abby said "look into the student who challenged Erika Potter, it could be nothing but just to be sure." Ben nodded and left while Abby got her coat again she better leave before someone else came.

...

* * *

Later that same night at Hogwarts while the students slept a meeting between the deputy head mistress and the headmaster took place in their office.

"Have you found out why young Erika chose to enter the duels" Dumbledore asked.

"She misses her brother and thought that maybe he would come to watch her" Minerva McGonagall answered. "He hasn't written to her, no one single note, in the last three months Albus."

"I see, well Minerva Harry has a delicate job, he can't always write." the head master said.

"I told her I would speak to you about it and see what we could do" McGonagall said hopefully.

"I know Minerva that my students and most of magical Britain likes to think that I have knowledge of everything, but surely you must know better, there are things I don't know and where Harry Potter is, what he is doing and why he doesn't write to his sister are a few of them" the old wizard said.

"There is no way to find out, just so he can come see her duel, if not she might do reckless and dangerous things, if he continues to be absent."

"As you know Minerva several years ago we reached an agreement with a secret ministry organization, one of the terms was that we wouldn't know anything about young Harry, and not even my many tittles allow me to break the secrecy of that organization." Dumbledore said a bit defeated.

"I heard Amelia Bones will call a reunion of the Wizengamot with the head of the department over the Quidditch World Cup, maybe you could ask?" the teacher said.

"I doubt it, I understand your worry, but it's better to let it be from the time being, in any case I don't think Amelia will be able to pass the proposition, the Unit has ways to make sure of that, but even if she managed to do it, I wouldn't ask anything, there are some shady people at the Wizengamot that would take advantage of the information.

"Did we do the correct thing Albus, sending Harry to be trained?" she asked in a whisper.

"I'm not sure, with this kind of decisions you never know, but so far he has proven effective in protecting his sister." the head master answered.

"Do you at least know if he is ok?"

"Yes I believe he is, I saw him two years ago after the chamber, he seemed to be ok. I wouldn't be surprised if he was here watching miss potter"

"Was he the one..." McGonagall asked

"Yes, miss Granger owes him her life" the headmaster said gravely and after a brief silence both called it a night.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed not much action but there are a couple of interesting details in this chapter. The duels and the tournament are about to start so keep reading. Please review and tell me what you think.**


	9. Selection

**I still don't own Harry Potter or anything related to it.**

 **As always Read, Enjoy and Review.**

 **For those of you who reviewed if the first chapter and haven't done so in the last ones; drop me a line guys and girls I want to know what you think of the fic.**

* * *

 **Selection**

Somewhere in the countryside on England stood a imposing old house, it was the kind of house that people holding some kind of small nobility title, or those who had just come into money, would have had in old times; big but sober, made of painted brick rather than stone, a good house but not grand.

The property had seen better times; the lawn, where there had been numerous summer and spring parties, that had once been well mowed and green was now of a yellowish tone and ran while through the property mingled with weeds. The wall that surrounded the property, and that had once been impenetrable, was now ruined at numerous parts, making intrusion very easy.

Perhaps the part of the property where the declining of the, once, noble property was more evident was however the house itself. What had, not many years ago, been one of the best, and most luxurious houses of the town was now obviously abandoned, and had been so for some time now.

The exterior walls were covered in creepers that had even penetrated the brick, what little portions of the wall could still be seen through the creepers showed a faded and chipped paint, green moss had even covered the north wall and the roof, that had several holes. The windows that from time to time cut the wall were, if not broken, so dirty that it was impossible to see through them.

The coat of arms of the family that had once stood proud on the front of the house, just above the front door, lied now destroyed on the grass. The door itself, in other time a robust piece of craft work made of cedar, was now hanging by its hinges as if blown by an explosion.

No light came from the ancient house except from a weak flickering one from the second floor of the house where in other times the master bedroom had been.

Inside the house was no better than in the outside, the floor, although the first floor was not illuminated the light that streamed through the door was enough to discern what, in other time must have been the hall where the owners of the house received their guest, now, as the rest of the house, it was covered in a thick layer of dust.

The part of the floor just in front of the door was blackened as if it had burned recently. Other parts of it where broken or worn out by age. At the left side of room stood a wood staircase that led to the second floor, if no step broke before one was to arrive t the second floor. Once there it was evident from what room the light came.

"Do we know who was it?" the hollowed voice asked, he hadn't seen the man enter, as he was sitting away from the door, facing the chimney of the old house. He however knew that he was there. He could hear his rapid breath and hesitant steps. Pathetic.

"N-no n-not y-yet my lord" the little man said and covered himself as if expecting to be attacked.

Rage sized Voldemort, the failed attack had been weeks ago and they weren't closer to finding out who among their Death Eaters had organized it. they had probably felt the mark surge since he was a little bit stronger, but who had organized it? And if they felt it why weren't they there with him?

Well maybe it was for the best, that none of them except for Peter and Crouch Jr. had come. One out of cowardice and the other out of loyalty.

Voldemort didn't fool himself, he knew that the loyalty of his death eaters was one born out of fear and if they saw him weak they could try something foolish. Still his dwindled numbers sure were a problem when something needed to be done.

"And the other group?" he asked

"I-I C-couldn't F-find anything about them E-either M-my lord" Wormtail answered and covered himself again.

Voldemort wished no more than to curse his servant, but he was weak and the cruciatus took a lot of precious energy, soon, soon, he would be full again and would be able punish his servant, and all the others that had failed to return to his side, like they deserved for such a failure. "it's everything ready?" he asked.

"Yes my lord" Wormtail said approaching the moth eaten old couch "your other servant is ready."

"Good, soon, very soon" he said rubbing his hands already felling weak again. "I need another dose, go milk Nagini!" he roared.

Wormtail scurried away to search for that despicable creature his lord called snake hoping that, this time, the beast would not bite him.

...

* * *

Harry scanned the room his mind already set in the constant level of alert he maintained when at duty. Today the qualifying duels were going to start, and that was the room where the Beauxbatons students would compete. The duels didn't start until after breakfast, and at that hour students were still sleeping, but Harry wanted to check the room at least two times. This was the first, he would make the second just before the duels started.

Harry would be lying if he denied that he was nervous, he was a good agent, he knew, but fifteen other students had challenged Fleur and although five ,three boys and two girls, had decided not to participate that still left ten. His odds against ten people, even if they were students, were not very good taking into account that they were all going to be closer to Fleur than him.

That was without counting the other people, the second, that every dueller was going to have and the people from other schools that were allowed to go watch to gather Intel for their school. All of them carrying wands.

Once the standard inspection was done Harry left the room and went down the same corridor, still half an hour until students got up. A few rooms away from the one were Fleur was going to duel, where the Hogwarts students would have to duel, Ginny was doing the same inspection Harry had performed.

"I still don't understand why we have to do this so early" whined Ginny. "The Hogwarts students won't start duelling until after eating, that 15:00"

"I already told you, we do this now because we have more time not only to search but to mark those places where we think someone could hide something or hide himself, that way this evening, in your case, and in a few hours when the duels start, in mine, when we will be pressed for time, since we also have to check the wads, we will be able to do a quicker search but more..."

"Yeah, yeah, more accurate and efficient, I know."

"Then shut up and hurry up the students are about to come down for breakfast." Harry called from the door where he was supervising the search.

...

* * *

A man walked through the corridors of Hogwarts, doing as little noise as he could, he knew that even if they caught him nothing will happen, that was what the potion was for, but it would be still suspicious so he made sure no one saw him and constantly looked back to confirm no one was following him.

Now was the perfect moment, there was no Aurors in sight yet as all students were sleeping, what both helped him reach his destination faster and undetected. Why no one had noticed that the place where he was going to attack needed to be guarded he didn't know. But he thanked heavens for their stupidity.

Once he was in front of the correct painting he tickled the pear like his master he told him to and the drawing sprung to life letting him enter the kitchens of Hogwarts. That would had been so useful in his years there as a student he thought.

At that moment there was only one of those creatures at the kitchen, It was the most lively house elf Barty Crouch Jr. had had the displeasure to met, he was dressed too, his style was eccentric; Dressed with plaid pants, a yellow shirt a tie with red and white stripes, his feet covered by a pair a shocks each one of them of a different colour, one red, the other yellow, there was no doubt that that the elf had been set free.

Barty silently grabbed a chandelier from a nearby table and then stopped for a moment to watch how the happy unaware elf danced around the kitchen, grabbing goblets and putting them on tables, filling pitchers with pumpkin juice and giving last minute touches to the breakfast the students would eat in just a few moments. He had to calculated it well or else, if no other elves came to find their fallen college, breakfast would be served late, the teachers would get suspicious, there would investigate sooner and he could be discovered sooner than necessary.

He observed the elf do his chores while he danced to inexistent music, his tie swinging with every jump the bony creature gave, then he grabbed a chandelier from a nearby table and expected the right opportunity. This _assignment is going to be really easy_ Barty Crouch Jr. thought smirking while he gripped his weapon and whacked the creature on the head rendering him unconscious.

He briefly considered killing the creature, he would enjoyed it greatly, he had never liked house elves, but he couldn't. Maybe on another occasion, but not today. He had purposefully attacked the elf with a chandelier instead of magic so whomever investigated the attack didn't feel any magic, thus not thinking of searching for any traces. He could not ruin the plan just for the pleasure of killing a lower creature.

Carefully avoiding the unconscious form Barty went to the back of the huge Hogwarts kitchens. There stood four tables set identically to those on the great hall under him. The tables even had the banner of the house they were for. It was almost too easy. Barty Crouch Jr. took a flask out of his pocket soaked a table cloth with the liquid it contained and scrubbed the inside of one of the bronze goblets of the second table at the left side. Then, for good measure he put a compulsion charm on the cup that matched that of the person who he wanted to drink from that goblet. It was a fool proof plan, even if they searched for magical rest on the goblet they would be so small that it would be masked by the magic elves used to make the juice and the taste would be masked by the same juice. Smirking he left the kitchen not before grabbing a croissant. He was hungry.

On the way back to the way back he only encountered one student that was heading to the kitchens, but of course she didn't recognized him as the death eater he was.

...

* * *

"Outrageous! Unbelievable!" said Hermione sitting in the Gryffindor table.

"What? What happened?" said Ron, who up until that point had been half sleeping while he ate his breakfast, startled.

"Someone" she said spitting the word so low that he almost couldn't hear her "someone attacked Dobby."

"Dobby? The elf you rescued from the Malfoy? After you know..? Is he ok?" Erika asked

"I don't know Madame Pomfrey is treating him now, but she doesn't know much about elves. His magic and endurance are different from that of wizards and witches. Besides the attacker didn't use magic, whomever it was just hit him in the head with a chandelier" Hermione said so incensed that she didn't notice Erika's reference to her second year incident.

"Why would anyone want to attack and elf anyway?" Asked Erika.

"Maybe someone wanted an early or late snack and Dobby didn't want to give them one" suggested Ron.

"No, an elf would never refuse and order of any of the students of Hogwarts, its teachers or the guests. So it was not for that" answered Hermione her head bent down. Dobby had been the first, not to mention the only elf to date, that Hermione had saved with her program for the equal rights of elves. He was especial.

"Well maybe the attack is no more than what it is" said Ron interrupting Hermione's musings, after receiving two very puzzled looks the boy elaborated "not everybody is like you Hermione. Some wizards and witches see elves like property, as you know, and the fact that Dobby doesn't have any owner and is being paid for working at Hogwarts might have angered some people. It could have even been another elf that saw dobby as a dishonour to their race" the red-headed boy said.

"Ron is right" Erika chimed in "maybe we should go have a look at it?" Erika suggested.

"No Erika you have to duel. And I'm your second we should be concentrating on that besides I already looked around and didn't see anything. Dobby is being treated and all it's fine." Hermione said.

"Oh come on, duels don't start for another few hours and I know you want to know who attacked dobby." Erika said Grabbing Hermione's arm and forcing her to stand up.

...

* * *

"Weasley did you hear that?" Harry asked.

"What?" she asked.

"Granger just said that and elf was attacked" said Harry "but why?"

"Maybe someone didn't like how they cocked" Joked Ginny. The joke however sparked something in Harry.

"They spiked the food!" he said in a horrified whisper "Go check Erika's plate and goblet even the cutlery I'll do the same with Fleur" he commanded and then added "and tell all other Unit members you encounter to do the same with their charges."

Harry hurriedly approached Ravenclaw's table and casted the potion detection spell on the go praying no one would notice. In other circumstances he would have waited for the right opportunity but there was no time.

When he looked at Weasley she nodded no with her head meaning Erika's plate goblet etcetera where clean.

"We have to go to the kitchens" Harry said "this could be a serious threat"

"Should we ask the elf?"

"let the Aurors take care of that, I just want to see the kitchens to have an idea of what the assailant might have done or taken" Harry said.

They soon discovered the first lead as, upon arrival at the drawing that was supposed to let them access the kitchens, they didn't know how to enter.

"Do you remember what the file said?" asked Ginny.

"The Unit file about Hogwarts doesn't say anything about how to open the kitchens, they probably didn't think it was important knowledge" he said. But he remembered that he had seen something about the Hogwarts kitchens somewhere, but where?

It had been in a file that was for sure but there were no more files containing information about the castle other than the official one. There were some about the students... And then it hit Harry it had been in the file about his father that his mother had composed, he had read it so many times that he could quote it.

 _"_ _My charge, that had, at that time, been out of bed in spite of the dangers of the war, had proceeded to tickle the pear in a drawing depicting a bouquet of fruits and the drawing had sprung to life revealing the kitchen. What they did inside is unknown as it was impossible to enter without being detected."_

Harry thanked his mother once more for helping him even if it was just as a memory. As it was normal nowadays guilt mixed with happiness when he remembered her. He was still guarding Fleur would his mother approve?

Not wanting to think about it anymore he confirmed his suspicions to Weasley "did you notice that we didn't know how to enter and yet the attacker didn't break or damage the painting to enter?"

"Maybe he or she used a confundus" suggested the girl.

"No there were no traces of magic anywhere" Harry said.

"And what does that mean?" Ginny asked.

"One of the students or the teachers did it" Harry sentenced. "come on let's go in"

Once inside they found that someone had already beat them, there stood three Hogwarts students, one of them his sister, searching for clues. For a moment Harry lost the ability to talk. so it was Ginny who cleared her throat and said.

"Just this morning someone was attacked here, you shouldn't be here" she remarked.

For a moment the three teenagers were speechless but then Hermione, always the more eloquent of the three, spoke.

"We are searching for evidences, since I was the first to found Dobby I thought we could help"

"Well we thank you for your intention to help but you should leave this to the Aurors and concentrate on the duels you are going to face, aren't you her second?" Ginny said looking at Hermione and then at Erika who, she noticed was giving her an intense stare.

"Yes, you are right of course we should leave, come on guys" Erika said before the other two could answer.

After that Both Harry and Ginny searched the kitchens but were unable to find anything and soon Harry had to go protect Fleur at the duels.

...

* * *

"Why did you do that Erika?" Hermione asked annoyed.

"Those two were not Aurors" Erika said spinning around to look at her friends.

"What? Of course they were they were wearing the uniform of the Auror corps" Hermione said.

"No they were dressed like Aurors but they were not" Erika said.

"You...you mean they were death eaters?" asked Hermione in a fearful whisper.

"No, no they were not death eaters either, they were, I think, members of that ministry department we talked about over the summer, the one Ron told us about."

"How do you know? I didn't see anything estrange" asked Ron.

"yeah, and we had agreed that they probably didn't exist" Hermione seconded.

"I recognized the girl, from the World Cup, she had a different hair colour and different eyes but if you looked straight at her iris you could see the colour was blurry so she had changed it magically. She probably did the same to her hair" Erika said and then added "the voice was the same and so was the face."

"Why do you think they are here? I don't think they want to investigate Dobby's aggression" Ron said.

"Honestly Ron isn't it obvious" said Hermione "they are here to protect Erika."

...

* * *

Ginny Weasley fidgeted, the duels between the Hogwarts students were about to start. She had already checked the wands and everything seemed to be fine, but what if something happened. This was the most important mission of her career the most difficult too, just thinking about who she was protecting made her nervous.

She wished Harry was there with her, or instead of her. He was always so calm and professional that his sole presence made Ginny want to be a better agent. But Harry was protecting Fleur Delacour and she had to protect Harry's sister. Just thinking about it made her nauseated, what if she failed? What if something happened to Harry's sister? What if she let Harry down? He had always been so kind to her, correcting her mistakes, listening to her when she was sad because she couldn't see her family, always helping her train. Almost like she was her little sister. All that would end if she failed because she was protecting the most precious thing to Harry, His true sister.

The first duel, maybe because they thought it would be an interesting one, was Fred against George Weasley. Ginny both enjoyed it and suffered at the same time. It was not a normal duel, it was more like a competition of cruel pranks mixed with deadly spells.

Ginny had to admit that George was the best of the two. It was not that he had more power, better tactics or knew his enemy better but that he had more talent than Fred.

"Good luck brother, one of us is going to win that price the offer to the winner of the tournament , too bad is not going to be you" George said. Fred just grinned.

" _Anteoculatia_ " Fred said as soon as the judge made signal to start. Immediately a pair of antlers grew on George head.

In retaliation George conjured some snow balls and charmed them to attack Fred, the effect was hilarious. While Fred tried to get rid of the snow balls his twin got rid of the antlers and attacked again.

"Confundus" George said, but by that time Fred had already gotten rid of the balls and blocked it.

After several more spells some inoffensive other more dangerous the duel eventually ended when Fred too preoccupied with making George dance with a spell failed to see the stunner George sent his way.

After that duels were not so interesting Fred defeated Erika, Erika surprisingly won her duel against George and Cedric won against Fred first and then George. The last duel was between Erika and Cedric, if Cedric won he would be the champion and the other three would have to duel to see who was the other person who would get to put their name in the goblet.

If on the contrary it was Erika who won they would be tied and another duel between the two would take place, to see who was the champion and the most likely to be selected. But at that point both would have the opportunity to enter their names.

* * *

"Remember Erika that you are supposed to lose, don't do anything reckless ok?" Hermione asked her in a whisper while she pointed to some lines of a parchment to pretend they were planning the duel.

"I know, I know" she said changing positions all the time in her chair and scanning the crowd.

"Nervous?" Hermione asked.

"No, well yes but it's not that" Erika admitted.

"What then?"

"McGonagall said she would talk with the headmaster to see if my brother could come see me, but I don't see him here." Hermione wanted to reassure her friend but in that moment a sharp whistle told them that it was time for Erika to go.

* * *

Cedric Diggory climbed the stairs to the duelling stage his feet weighted too much, more than they should, his vision blurry he couldn't even see his feet clearly, his body utterly tired in spite of having rested well the night before. When Erika started the duel with an expelliarmus Cedric saw it coming as if the spell moved on fast motion while he moved in a slow one. He barely managed to put up a hasty shield that broke before fully deflecting his attacker's spell which forced him to jump out of its way and even that action left him feeling tired.

He tried to attack Erika but his spells had little to no power and moved very slowly as if glued to his wand. Something was happening to him.

"Stupefy" Erika casted. Again Cedric could barely get out of the way before the spell hit the wall behind him. His legs seemed too rigid and heavy.

The duel ended inevitably when Cedric was not able to stop another stupefy from Erika.

"What are you doing" Hermione hissed "you were supposed to lose."

"I know and I did all I could but have you have seen him he seems half asleep, he could barely stop the spells" Erika defended herself.

"Well, try to lose this time or you are going to have to compete in that deadly competition, Please, please Erika don't win." Again a sharp whistle interrupted them but Erika nodded to Hermione.

This time Erika won even faster as Cedric was even more tired and worn out, by the end of the second duel and after only having casted three spells the boy could barely stand. Seeing his condition the judge of the duels, a teacher from Durmstrang, told him to go to the infirmary, he might have a case of magical exhaustion, although it was rare having casted so few spells.

Erika was declared the winner and invited to summit her name to the Goblet so she went to where the Goblet of Fire stranded followed by a cheering party of Gryffindors, that congratulated her for her victory and skill duelling. Erika on the other hand saw her victory more like a failure and knew that her victory didn't have anything to do with her skills. Something had happened to Cedric during the duels.

Ginny thought the same although she was more preoccupied by Harry's reaction when he found out.

* * *

With a shaky hand, while Gryffindors cheered and even screamed, Erika wrote her name in a piece of parchment. Her hands trembled so much in fact that when she tried to throw the parchment into the magical fire it fell flat into the floor, which elicited a laugh from everyone around save Ron and Hermione that knew how worried Erika was. Finally she managed to throw the parchment into the Goblet feeling as if she was signing her death sentence.

...

* * *

Harry Potter was in a very good mood, something rare since he had stopped protecting his sister. Nothing had happened at the Beauxbatons duels, they had been pretty good, interesting even, and he was able to watch his charge win them all which, as much as he tried not to, made him feel proud of her and of being the one guarding her. He even surprised himself humming a melody while he walked to the Great Hall to have dinner.

His good mood however ended as soon as he saw Weasley, her brow furrowed, fidgeting and constantly scanning the Great Hall.

"Weasley what happened? Is Erika hurt?" Harry asked worried

"No" the read-head said defeated.

Harry scanned the room to make sure that what she was seeing was true. He spotted his sister sitting in her usual spot once more flanked by her friends. There seemed to be something bothering her but Harry couldn't tell what. Physically she was fine. "Then what is it, come Ginny tell me." Harry demanded.

"Promise me you won't get mad" she said resembling more the little girl she still was than a trained agent.

"Tell me what is it first" Harry said now a bit more harshly.

"Erika...she...she won three of her four duels" Ginny said.

"That's fantastic!" Harry said forgetting for a moment what that meant too consumed by brotherly pride.

"No Harry it's not, she had to summit her name to the Goblet" in that moment all pride he had felt just moments ago was replaced by worry. He knew something bad would happened, he knew he should have been the one protecting her, now it could be too late.

A knot formed in his stomach and although food was being served in that moment he refused to eat. At the Gryffindor table Erika couldn't eat either.

* * *

If a few days ago when the Triwizard tournament was revealed to the students dinner had been a hurried affair this time it had been as fast, if not faster. Everyone knew that the champions were going to be chosen that night and when dinner came to an end and Dumbledore rose from his seat, presiding the faculty table, everyone was expectant.

"Today all of those students from the three schools competing in the Triwizard Tournament, who had won the right to do so by winning their duels, put their names in the Goblet of Fire. The moment has come to tell you who will represent the schools." the headmaster said and with a gesture of his hand the Goblet's flames grew as if it was alive.

"From the Durmstrang Institute of Magic..." he said and the paused allowing a piece of parchment to came out of the fire "Victor Krum" he said after unfolding the slightly charred parchment. wild cheers and applauses could be heard from the Slythering table where the Durmstrang students were sitting while the rest of the tables clapped politely.

"From Beauxbatons..." Dumbledore announced. Harry could see Fleur holding hands with her two friends Alana and Sabrina. She had been the winner but there was still another girl, that being the second person who had won the more duels, could be selected. "Fleur Delacour" Dumbledore said when he was finally able to catch the swam shaped paper.

This time the applause was less numerous and loud but the boys at all the tables made up for it as they pounded the tables with their fists, spilling some goblets full of water, and the ground with their feet.

"And finally from Hogwarts..." Dumbledore said unfolding the paper. Harry crossed his fingers and held his breath, he knew that Erika had the greatest chance to be selected as she had won but Cedric could still be selected if the Goblet thought that he was better fit. "Erika Potter" Dumbledore said as he had said just a few days ago, just that this time the name was uttered in a defeated sight.

The noise of the cheers and applauses, even some explosions form magical fireworks downed anything the headmaster could have wanted to say

Once more Harry's world stopped. Again they had said her sister name. Again she was in danger. He should have protected her. If only he had protected her.

* * *

 **Well, what did you thought? We saw a little bit of what Voldemort is up to and Erika has been selected.**

 **Next chapter the first task. The fun starts.**

 **As always please review. And as I said before please for those who reviewed at the beginnig drop me a few lines so I know you are still reading it.**

 **To those who have not reviewed yet, the same review and tell me what do you think of the fic.**


	10. The First Task

**Hello readers sorry for the big scare I hope this chapter is worth the waiting.**

 **As I haven't said in a while I remember you that I don't own Harry Potter.**

 **As always Read, Enjoy and Review Follow and Favourite.**

* * *

 **The First Task**

When the two men that had received her in the portkey station took the blindfold form her eyes Diana was confused for a moment as everything was still black, then she remembered that it was still quite late when she had arrived at the country and the trip, although long, had not taken that much so maybe it was still quite early in the morning. When she looked at the ski her suspicions were confirmed, it was still dark but she could already see orange starting to appear with the first sun rays.

After giving her precise orders concerning where she had to go and when she was expected the two men left. Alone now Diana took in her surroundings. It was the first time she was there since she entered the business, when she was sixteen, only those who got promoted or needed to be punished went there and so far Diana had never been promoted, she was still too young, and this was the first time she failed to complete a mission. She couldn't help but be marvelled by what she saw, the two men had left her in what appeared to be the main gates of a gothic castle where she had to met with her boss.

Through the iron gates of the castle Diana could discern a beautiful garden dominated by a circular maze, contrary to most this was quite tall, so much that one could get lost in it. Closer to the door Diana could see several animals running though the garden, she could even swear she saw a tiger, but that must have been an illusion as tigers were not common on the country she had travelled to but of course maybe her escorts had taken her to a different country with a portkey, who knew.

It was almost time so Diana extracted a silver necklace, which depicted a cauldron and a wand stirring it, from her robes and pointed it to the to the same figure depicted in the centre of the iron gates. The wand on Diana's necklace came alive and shot a spell to the wand on the gates that stirred the cauldron making the gates open to let her in.

Closer to the garden now Diana could smell the perfume of flowers that, as the animals, didn't belong to the country she had taken the portkey to, she could also hear the birds singing masked no doubt by a silencing charm. Diana also saw a lake and several tress far away but didn't have time to appreciated as she had to met her boss soon.

Diana started to walk with short insecure steps to the entrance of the castle itself, feeling her fear grow with each step she took. it was almost time.

If the outside of the castle had been breathtaking the inside was, if that was possible, even more beautiful; the floor was covered in a crimson red carpet that didn't show even a wrinkle, that hided the white marble tiles. The walls made of the same white and black marble, brought no doubt form Italy, were covered with portraits depicting the supposed history of the enterprise that every new employee had learn by heart; in the portraits one could see how supposedly in the beginning the founder of the company opened a small wand shop but found that there were a lot of wand maker and she couldn't compete with them.

Desperate when the man was about to lose his shop he found that although there were many wand makers no one seemed to sell wands to magical creatures capable of casting spells such as goblins or those with mixed blood such as half veela. The paintings continued telling how The man and his family became very rich until the use of wands was restricted to wizards and witches, how then the man fought for the equal rights of all creatures and eventually, when he lost, started to sell potions. The drawings continued thought the years depicting different members of the family until the last one where one could see how just recently they had started to sell wands to wizards with mixed blood that couldn't find a proper match in conventional wand shops, just as the founder of the company had wanted.

It was all a cover, Diana knew, the man had never existed and the owner of the company was not his descendant. The only thing that was true was that they made wands but it wasn't because they believed in the equal rights a magical creatures. That thought made Diana laugh, that was not their motivation at all. It was however a convenient cover, after all anyone visiting the castle had to believe that they were visiting the main offices of a company that had been working for a long time in the business of potion and wand making, and not just roughly ten years kidnapping magical creatures. And they did believed, Diana had no clue as to how her bosses had managed to convince everyone that their business was so old but they had.

The castle was truly breath-taking, under her however, if what she had heard from her first manager, back when he was starting at the company four years ago was true, were the dungeons where all had started, where the nightmare started to those captured by the company. That thought put a smile on Diana's face.

It had been in the dungeons, although she was not sure if the story she had heard was talking about those dungeons or the dungeons of any other castle the company had, where they had discovered the secret that was now making them rich when his boss was still a common criminal -or so said the true history of the company, that all employees were also told in their formation process- and where some of the girls and women, those who had been damaged in the process where brought to "work" for their other business.

If it wasn't for the noise cancelling spell she was sure that she would be able to hear the screams even from where she was standing Diana thought smirking. The smirk however vanished from her face when she saw the double doors of the dining room appear after the last left turn. Fear gripped her again.

The amaranth wood double door, much as the ones in the entrance outside had half of a cauldron engraved on each door, when closed, like they were then, a wand stirring a cauldron appeared. At each side of the door two figures dressed in forest green robes stood wands draw.

"State your business" the figure at the left side of the door barked.

"The boss is expecting me, I came to be given further instructions" she said.

"Identification" the same figure barked smirking, maybe because he knew that those "further instruction" were always accompanied of some kind of punishment. Diana showed him the same silver necklace she had used to open the gates and turned it around so the men could see the code engraved there; "sc 3rd" written in lower case letters . The guard casted a spell in the pendant and the wand came to live, just as it had done in the gates, and casted a spell in the cauldron.

"You may pass" the guard said "but you must leave your wand here " he said. Diana gave him her wand reluctantly and went in.

* * *

Inside a long table with ten chairs, all made with the same material as the door, was set for breakfast. Covered with plates full of fruit, biscuits, pastries, some even contained fried eggs toasts and bacon. By the side of the table two servants waited one holding a tray with a tea pot and a chine cup and saucer completed by a silver tea spoon, while the other held a tray with all the items needed to drink a mug of hot coffee.

An old man with greying hair was already there sitting at the head of the table eating from a plate full of fresh fruit. Diana carefully approached the table and seated in the chair at the left side of the man, then she looked at the man expectantly.

He, seemingly unaware of her presence, calmly ate another strawberry and then drunk form his cup of black tea. Then looked at her.

"Come on, Diana eat something, whatever you want, you must be starving" he said fixing his brown eyes on her. Diana eyed the food, she was indeed hungry and the food look delicious, but didn't grab anything. Seeing her hesitation the man laughed.

"Don't worry, eat something" he said with a kind smile on his face like the one a father or mother would give her child "Nothing is poisoned I promise" he said and laughed again.

Diana debated herself a bit longer but finally the hunger won and she started to put food on her plate, she however stuck to the selection her host had made just to be sure, and started eating.

"Clever girl" the man said chuckling "but I do promise nothing is poisoned, this time" he said making Diana choke with a grape she was eating. "Now what kind of tea do you prefer, or are you more of a coffee person."

"Black tea would be fine" she mumbled and then remembering her host choice she added "no milk or sugar" that made the man laugh again, harder this time.

"We taught you well Diana" he said raising "yes we taught you very well" he repeated putting both of his hand on her shoulders which made Diana go rigid and stop eating immediately. And yet you have already failed twice now. Perhaps we overestimated your abilities, perhaps you would do a better job in another post he whispered in her ear. Suddenly the room was filled with screams, sobs pleading words that Diana could not understand and the sound of someone casting a curse at another person. Diana was sure that the noise cancelling spell of the dungeons had been lifted, maybe the sounds had even been amplified so they reached the dining room. It didn't make her laugh as it had done before. This time Diana only felt far the threat clear to her.

"Your failure is causing me a lot of troubles" he whispered menacingly "the french division of the company wanted to take this job but I told the boss that your team was better, that it was best to do it here in England during the World Cup, that it would be easier. You somehow screwed that up so I asked for permission to try again in the travel. The french were furious, it was their territory. But I, again, put in a good word for you, I said that you never failed twice. That it was the first time you failed. So Tell me, why had you failed the company again Diana?" The man said replacing the noise cancelling spell.

"T-there had been some problems" she stammered.

"Problems? What problems?" Diana's boss asked irritated.

"T-the g-girl she is p-protected"

"That, that is the trouble that has caused you to fail two times?" the man screamed almost in her ear. "you are supposed to be able to handle Aurors, we trained you for that, we trained all our employees for that" he continued in a whisper.

"N-no t-the girl it's not protected by Aurors.."

"Then who is protecting her!" he screamed again "and you better not stammer this time."

"The unit" she said quickly and clearly "an agent from the unit, I haven't been able to find who, I swear." she pleaded.

"I see, well where is the girl now?"

"At Hogwarts, she competes in the Triwizard Tournament."

"Interesting... When will the first task take place?"

"Today" Diana answered promptly.

"ummm, it's a bit late but maybe I can still arrange something" he said rubbing a seal ring depicting the familiar wand and cauldron with a capital u and k engraved in the centre of the cauldron. "Meanwhile, eat and rest my dear, we'll talk later about your inefficacy" The man said giving Diana a kiss of the forehead that sent chills down her spine.

...

* * *

Harry Potter woke up rigid, nervous and with the sensation of having a whole in his stomach. At first, his barely awoken brain could not comprehend why all his alarms were sounding at once, but then Harry remembered. Dropping back on his bed he eyed the dossier on the nightstand wearily.

He had just received it yesterday, because security operatives only got the information about the tasks a few hours before said tasks were to be held so they could not inform the champions, and had spent the night revising it. The more he read the less he believed what he was reading, it couldn't be true. But it was.

Harry got up and showered his brain still going over what he knew of the task while the tepid water relaxed his muscles and got rid of the rests of sleep in his body. Afterwards, when he was checking his hair in the bathroom mirror to make sure no trace of his true colour could be seen through the blond dying he had been applying to it every day since he got to Hogwarts, Harry admitted to himself that it could have been worse. It could have been a basilisk, or a fucking nundu, who knew what those idiots were capable of for the sake of the show, they had, after all, allowed her sister to be part of it.

After putting some Auror robes on he slid his wand on the holsters in his left arm put the contacts, blinking a few times to get accustomed, and went to the Great Hall. He was the first to arrive, but he knew that two more Unit agents would join him soon as they had to check the tent where the champions would wait to be called, the grounds where the task was going to be set and the setting of the task itself.

The moment he sat down at the table a plate appeared in front of him and the table filled with food. Harry started to eat, running through his head the information on the task again to make sure he hadn't forgot anything, not paying too much attention to what he ate.

The champions had to face a dragon selected at random, how Harry didn't know, just before the task started and retrieve a crystal cylinder that contained the next clue form the beast. The rules were simple:

The task started with the sound of a cannon, once the task started the champions had to completed it alone. To complete the task they had to retrieve the crystal cylinder and until they did so the task didn't end thus, if they were still alive, they had to continue facing the dragon until they were able to get the cylinder or the time they had to complete the task ended. if they didn't have the cylinder when the time reached zero they would be disqualified.

The champions had to get the cylinder aided only by their wands and whatever object they were able to conjure or summon, to do so they were not allowed to harm the dragon nor break any eggs.

Once their turn ended they would have to return to the stands and not to the tent.

The task itself would take place in a rocky scenario situated in where Hogwarts' quidditch pitch normally was. The rocky field would be divided by a cliff that would separate the champions' tent, protected by same wards and spells used in the stands, form the part of the grounds where the proof will take place.

The cliff would constitute the first challenge for the champions as they would have to find a way to cross it before and after getting the cylinder to get to the safety of the wards. Although the rocks were magically created and not real if one was to be thrown against the say by a dragon they would cause the same damage as any normal rock of that size would.

In conclusion, it was a bloody nightmare, how he was supposed to protect Fleur when he couldn't exit the warded zone Harry didn't know, nor did he knew how was he supposed to face a dragon if anything went wrong. It was definitely not the kind of thing Unit operatives faced normally.

Harry's thoughts were then interrupted by a voice that echoed his worries.

"Dragons, I can believe it, dragons are this people even sane, how am I supposed to protect the Krum boy against a bloody dragon." the man, older than Harry, was murmuring.

"I was just thinking the same" Harry said which caused the blonde man to look at him.

"yeah who did you got" He asked running his fingers though his black hair. Normally Harry was not allowed to share the details of his charges, although in practice no one respected that rule, and desperate times called for desperate measures.

"The french girl" he said.

"You are kidding! You were the one of the carriage? They did a fine number on you" the other unit agent said chuckling.

"You should have seen how they ended" Harry answered laughing.

"Dead a presume" the other man whispered although they were alone in the Great Hall "But the battle must been hell."

"Pretty much yes, how was the ship?"

"I didn't know if I was protecting Krum form external threat or form their own classmates and teachers, they might seen united but that is just for the tournament you know demoralize the enemy and that stuff, in truth they would kill each other if they could. They even had a ex-death eater as a teacher."

"Well my train ride was very enjoyable, thank you for asking" Ginny, who had joined at some time during their conversation said. "No battles and no student hate, not the dangerous kind at least."

"You are late Weasley" Harry said "Now he said directing his gaze to the other man and then to Ginny again "how can we fight this dragons if the need arises?"

"We could use the same spells the dragon handlers use" Ginny suggested.

"No, those take at least ten people to work on those beasts" the other operative said.

"Yes but we have more power than the handlers maybe we could manage" Ginny defended her theory.

"Not that much power Weasley" Harry said as a matter of fact "besides there is no "we" once they finish the champions have to return to the stands and the protocol says the person protecting them has to go with them, so it would be one of us against a dragon. I wouldn't bet on us winning.

"We don't have to win, we just have to distract the dragon until our charge is safe" the man said and silence fell.

Harry thought about it and he had to admit that he couldn't think of anything better. Perhaps with a little bit more of time, but they had to go check the grounds now "Come on we have to move" he said breaking the silence.

"What? But I didn't have time to eat!" Ginny protested.

"You should have arrived earlier Weasley, now move" Harry commanded.

The three operatives did the usual checks; they checked that the pillars of the tent were intact, that the wards were correct, that all spells were casted and no one had tampered with them. Then they checked that all specifications of the field for the task were correct and that the stands had enough protection.

Finally they decided to check the dragons.

* * *

"Do we really have to check those beast boy, I would prefer not to" the older operative said.

"Don't think I like them anymore than you do but it procedure" Harry said. On one side of the field, hided by and invisibility spell where three caged dragons, as far as Harry could tell a Hungarian Horntail, an Ukrainian Ironbelly and a Norwegian ridgeback.

"What do you think Weasley it's all correct?" Harry asked.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Your brother, Bill, is a dragon handler isn't he? And he sends you books about them doesn't he, you ought to know more than me or him" Harry said.

"Charlie is the dragon handler actually" she corrected.

"So do they look ok or not girl" the other man said a bit agitated while recoiling not to get burn by one of the dragon's breaths. Ginny recalling what she knew, and what Charlie told her, casted a few spells and checked the results. Everything seemed fine, they were the kind of dragon they appeared to be, they were in a mood that was expected after being caged and they had been fed recently, so it was improbable that they would eat any of the champions. "Yeah everything looks fine"

"Good the chains are good too, now let's go we have to escort the champions it seems that the task is about to start" Harry said pointing to two handlers that were heading towards them, no doubt to transport one of the dragons.

...

* * *

Nicolai was sick of working with dragons, he didn't even like those beast, but for some reason that was the job he had to do. So far it had never proven to be useful, aside from being able to give the company a few tips and advices about dragons, but he was always told to wait for orders. Meanwhile he went to bed everyday smelling like ashes, he spend his waking hours surrounded by beast, and he was not only thinking about the dragons and was covered in burns. This way he was never going to get a better job on the company.

Today however was different, today his job probed useful. Today he received a letter with the cauldron and wand seal. And not just any seal but one containing two capital letters; "UK" which meant the orders came directly from the head of the UK division. If he did it well he would surely be promoted.

When he saw it appear in his desk he took it reverently with shaking hands, careful not to touch the seal. Quickly he unclasped his necklace and put it above the seal in the same exact position, once more careful not to touch the green material for he knew that that stuff was poisonous and if someone touched even if they wore protection the liquid will go into your body and kill you within seconds. After a while the seal broke and Nicolai read the letter carefully. When he finished he burned the letter and went to search his partner. there was not much time left.

"Irina, Irina hurry we have work to do" he screamed as soon as he entered her tent.

"What are you talking about" she said with a marked Russian accent "the task doesn't start until eleven o'clock"

"Not that kind of work" he whispered and saw how realization dawned on her "Really, they called us" she said excitedly.

"Yes and it was none other than the head of the UK division, no come on we don't have much time left." Nicolai urged her.

The letter had asked them to kidnap the Beauxbatons champion during the first task, and Nicolai had an idea of how to do it, the only thing they had to do was manipulate the chain of one of the dragons so it would come lose during the task and use the distraction that the beast was sure to create to grab the girl, if she resisted a simple stunner should the trick. But when they arrived where the dragons where it turned out that there already were other people taking care of the first part of his plan, they were dressed as members of the handler team, but Nicolai had never seen them . Well it didn't matter less work for him and Irina.

...

* * *

10:55, Harry couldn't be more nervous, the task was about to start and he was waiting in the champions tent next to Fleur and her father, her sister and mother had come too apparently but they were on the stands. Krum and his parents and his sister and her two inseparable friends.

Seeing her there, white as a sheet made Harry feel very guilty. He should be the one there, cheering her, encouraging her, giving her last minute instructions. If only he wasn't an operative of the Unit. He still had not written to her. Harry shook his head now was not the moment for that, he needed to be focused, for Fleur shake. In a last guilty induce effort to try and protect his sister he spoke to Ginny.

"Weasley" he whispered "are you ready" she nodded "good" and sighted.

"Come on champions, gather around, gather around" Ludo Bagman said holding a red bag while outside the voice of Dumbledore could be heard.

"As you surely remember" Dumbledore was saying "I told you when I announced to you that Hogwarts was going to host the Triwizard tournament I told you that this year the tournament would commemorate the war against Grindelwall and his fall. More specifically in this tournament we have based the task on the qualities a good fighter must have, both to fight and to avoid fighting. Today we will test two of the most important but to I let the introduction to a person that fought alongside me in the war Alastor moody." the wizard said.

"Good" Ludo said "Now if you would please take one of the...uummm...objects you would find in the bag you will know your task, Miss Potter ladies go first and you are the youngest of the two so go ahead." While Erika introduced her hand in the bad to blindly pick a dragon Harry held his breath and mentally prayed for her not to pick the horntail, to puck any dragon but the Horntail. "A the Ukrainian Ironbelly" Ludo said to her sister that was looking the dragon wide eyed "Good choice, now you miss Delacour.

Fleur quickly extracted another dragon "A the Norwegian ridgeback good one to have" Ludo said to Fleur that had suddenly turned pale.

Now that the future of his charge was decided Harry turned out and instead listened to Mad eye Moody's speech.

"But don't you think, not even for a second that a good fighter only needs courage, that alone would only kill you. You also need a quick mind, for once you have used your courage to get into battle only your mind, if it's quick enough will save you. That is way, when the cannon sounds our champions will face a fierce an clever beast. A Dragon. Harry heard the gasps and then next to him he heard Ludo said "it's time" It was first time. Harry tensed.

...

* * *

At first Harry couldn't understand Fleur strategy, in fact he was sure that she wanted to get herself killed. With the heart on his throat Harry saw how after crossing to the other side of the cliff with a levitating charm casted on herself she run straight to the dragon, going as close as she could until the dragon started spiting fire, then she tried to grab the cylinder, or so Harry thought, but she was still too far away and finally she ducked behind the rocks before the fire burned her.

Harry then saw astonished saw how Fleur threw one of the eggs of the dragon towards the cliff. _Impossible_ he thought she hadn't had time to grab the egg. The dragon wouldn't be fooled by that.

As the egg approached the cliff it seemed that Harry was right. The egg-rock was about to fall, if it did Fleur would lose as she didn't have time to create another and the judges would counted it as a real egg as they could not be sure.

But just as the egg went down in the abyss the dragon flew and caught it, moment that Fleur used to grab the cylinder hide it in her robes and duck again behind the rocks. Then it was just a matter of leaving quietly. Harry had to admit that it had been clever.

* * *

Harry saw Krum's performance from the stands and in his opinion it was the best. True it was a bit messy but it also was quick and easy two qualities very desirable in a strategy. What Krum did was hast several _smoke screens_ the smoke would not only confuse the dragon but also nullify his sense of smell and irritate his eyes. Then Krum ventured the smoke with a bubblehead charm and retrieved the cylinder. The judges deducted points from him for hurting the dragon's eyes but Harry thought that Krum was a genius.

* * *

Finally the cannon shot again, in Harry's ears it sounded like a requiem. It was his sister's turn. Harry tried to be positive surely, given what would be expected of her in the future Erika had been trained , but when he had had to rescued her he had seen no trace of that. His illusions of some form training shattered when his sister, once she passed the wards summoned a Broom.

Who had been the genius that had thought she could out fly a dragon?! was the only thing Harry could think. Even with a broom as good as that , a Firebolt, and flying abilities as good as Erika's it was impossible. Unable to do anything Harry saw how Erika took off and ascended. she tried to trick the dragon but as Harry predicted it was impossible.

Suddenly and mere inches away from the dragon Erika plummeted, the dragon when to burn her but she recovered from the fall just in time. When Harry recovered from the micro heart attack he recognized the tactic and smiled. Only his sister would use quidditch techniques to outmatch a dragon. She was her father's daughter alright. Erika started to return and Harry breathed again and focused in Fleur once more when a metallic crunch was heard and the dragon came free hitting Erika and making her fall from the broom just above the cliff.

...

* * *

Time slowed down for Harry he saw the dragon hit Erika. He thought he could even heard the moment her broom broke. Erika was falling, in a few seconds the black chasm between the two edges of the cliff would swallow her.

He looked around everyone was frozen. Fleur observed the scene with her mouth open a look of horror on her face, that mirrored that of most of the people present. Erika's friend, Hermione, had a distant look perhaps looking for a spell that could save her friend but Harry knew that she wouldn't find any in time. meanwhile the red-head Ron gripped Hermione's hand.

In the teacher's and judges stand the image was the same, all unmoving. Only McGonagall's and Dumbledore's hands were moving; McGonagall's empty hand was rising, if it was raising to her mouth to suppress a scream or to her eyes so as not to see what was about to Happen Harry didn't knew. Dumbledore's hand, Gripping what Harry recognized as the elder wand, was taking stand. But it was futile the spell would arrive a second later.

Harry directed his gaze to Ginny, to the tent hoping to see her taking action, she was trained to do so after all, but she was standing there as frozen as the rest. Desperate Harry ran to the edge of the stand, even if he knew he would arrive late, He just jumped into the railing silently casting Ascendio before his feet stopped touching the railing while at the same taking impulse with his own feet. When he was high enough and twisting his arm in a weird way he casted an Expulso curse in his back to propel himself forward.

* * *

He was too late, he would get there just after her sister fell, then he would fell himself and it would be the end of the two Potters left. It was ridiculous how many times both of them had been on a similar situation Harry thought. Just as he was starting to lose impulse anther spell collided with his back and speeded him up. Harry arrived just in time to catch her sister that was by now unconscious, Harry turned then both around mid air and closed his eyes awaiting the pain that was sure to come in a matter of a few seconds.

* * *

Harry expected to collide first and then feel pain and it surely was that way but the first thing that his mind registered was a sound, a loud CRACK.

 _What was that noise have I cracked the rock?_ was the first thought to enter his mind clouded by a pain that he couldn't feel yet. Then Harry started to suffocate. He couldn't breathe. No air reached his lungs. It was after that, and only after that that the splitting pain in his back registered creating black dots in his eyes and threatening to draw him to the relief of unconsciousness. Harry wanted to scream but he couldn't there was no air left in his lungs.

In what Harry thought to be an eternity but were just seconds the worst wave of pain passed and air returned suddenly to his lungs chocking him, Ironically making him gasp for air. Then he started to fall again, from the rock he had collided into to the ground, and he automatically without conscious thought turned again to cover his sister from the fall.

* * *

The second impact did make him scream, a rough animalistic shout. it also made the black dots in his eyes grow bigger blinding him, inviting him to succumb to the oblivion. Harry let himself be persuaded, he was into much pain. He was almost unconscious when one word entered him mind. Dragon.

To Harry it didn't make sense but his subconscious mind, that that the unit had trained ingraining knowledge until he could fight asleep if needed, made the alarms go off in his brain and sent adrenaline cursing though his veins, partially erasing the pain and dulling that that couldn't be erased. Clearing his mind.

Dragon. There is a dragon lose. A fire breathing killing machine. Need to move now. Harry obeying sat up abruptly bringing his sister with him. He tried to talk to her to give her directions as to what to do but was unable to find his voice. Exasperated Harry tried again, this time it did came, broken and no louder than a whisper but it came.

"Run Erika run!" he said coughing and tasting his own blood on his mouth. Erika didn't react she was shocked. Harry, ignoring the pain the black spots and the nausea no doubt thanks to the adrenaline, grabbed his sister and rolled with her behind a rock. In the stands the public gasped but Harry couldn't hear it. He sat up in spite of his screaming back and assessed his sister. She seemed fine just shocked, If he could just get her to run while he distracted the dragon...

"Erika, Erika listen to me" he said gasping which each word his breathing making a sibilant sound he didn't like. nothing happened "Come Erika react he said shaking as hard as he could. Erika's gaze seemed to level with his which Harry took as good sign. "You have to run I'll cover you run as fast as you can ok" he said as reassuringly as he could gripping his wand as if to indicate how he would cover her. The girl silently shook her head no, tears starting to fall from her eyes. "Yes you have to run." Another negative. "For god's sake Erika you can stay and we both die or you run while I stay and you might save your live." Harry felt the rook starting to heat, the dragon had found them in a few seconds their cover would be melt. "Ready" he said in a raspy voice "Now" He let go of her and started to run towards another rock hoping beyond hope to distract the dragon.

* * *

Seconds later he felt the rock starting to heat to the point where in burned. It had worked. Harry gladly closed his eyes. His sister was safe. He didn't have any energy left to save himself but that was ok.

* * *

For the second time if a few minutes Harry was about to let go of his consciousness when the scorching heat stopped. Horror struck Harry heard how someone casted spells at the dragon, a sweet voice with a french accent that he knew very well.

How Fleur could be there didn't matter all that mattered was that his mission was not over, he had to save her. Harry tried to get up but his abused body refused. Again his brain sent the order but his muscles refused. Defeated Harry closed his eyes while he heard Fleur cast a variety of spells some of which he recognized as spells from the dragon handlers. Who knew Fleur could know such spells. She truly was a resourceful girl. Thought Harry before Slipping into the dark.

* * *

 _Come on agent! Pain is your friend! Pain is candy for you!"_ Harry heard Hamilton scream and jolted awake frightened. The first thing he heard was Fleur still screaming spells which calmed him down, she was still alive. Harry tried to get up again he had to get her out of there. This time miraculous his muscles responded. First he was on his knees, which made him cough a mouthful of blood. Then helped by the half melted rock he was on his feet.

Carefully he took aim and shot an _Expulso_ curse to a surprised Fleur that went flying to the champions tent where she crashed, inside the wards, betrayal colouring her eyes. With no energy left Harry fell to his knees again facing the Ukrainian Ironbelly the largest kind of dragon. He idly remembered.

...

* * *

 **So what guys what do you think, Did you like it? First of all let me say that I know that if one person colided like that against a rock they would probably die but bare with me all will be explained.**

 **Sencond I wanted to change the first task, or at least changed the magical creature but none was so dangerous and suted my needs so well as the dragon, so there you have why I kept the dragon.**

 **Third I inspired one of the scenes of this chapter on a movie the first person to leave a review telling which scene and from what movie scene I got inspired can chose between asking me to answer a question he/she wants to know about the story or asking me to write anything she/he wasnts related to this fic like one shots from parts you want to know more about etc.**

 **Fourth In an hour or so I will try to update if I have enough streth left to finish it another fic that would deal with how this story would develope if there was no magic inolved called "A Not so Magical Story" it might give so some clues about this fic so go read it when you finish this chapter.**

 **Please review**

 **XS18**


	11. Traditions

**Hello readers, please read the note at the end of the chapter**

 **By the way did you miss my question at the end of the last chapter the one about the movie inspired scene on that chapter?**

 **As always Read, Enjoy and Review Follow, and favourite.**

* * *

 **Traditions**

Abbie Williams was just crossing the security checks that led to her department, after a brief pause to eat lunch, when she was intercepted by Ben.

"Boss, I have been searching for you. One of our operatives has been badly hurt"

"Who?" Abbie said trying to get through the last control, her attempt however was met with a raised wand and an arched eyebrow from the agent in the control post. "Really?" she said annoyed "I'm the head of this department don't you see me every day coming and going? do I really need an identity check? Don't you recognized me?"

"Sorry boss everyone has to pass all three checks. Your rules not mine" The agent said.

"Fine" she scoffed letting the agent check her mark, her wand and cast a series of spells on her to check that it was really her, not someone under the effects of the poly juice potion, and that she was not affected by an imperious curse.

"Who is hurt?" she said once she got through, Ben looked reluctant to answer "who is it?" she urged him.

"It's not confirmed yet, as agents don't know each other identities, but the first information we got said it was Potter" Ben said.

"What?!" Abbie said and then understanding why Ben was reluctant to share that piece of information there she led him to her office. "Is Aphrodite alright? Was it an attempt on her?" Abbie asked once they were inside.

"Yes Miss Delacour is alright" Ben said knowing that they were protected by silencing charms. "that's the weird thing about it the info we got says Potter is the one hurt but they also said that at the time Aphrodite had already finished her task without incident." Just then a knock on the door interrupted them. After a few seconds Agent Potter handler entered.

"Oh sorry she said if this is not a good moment I can come back latter" she said.

"Do you have new information agent?" Ben demanded.

"Yes sir, last update sais that Potter, Morgana and Aphrodite have been taken to the Hogwarts infirmary" she read from a piece of parchment.

"But I thought Aphrodite was alright?" Abbie asked pacing around the office.

"That was what the first info said" Answered Ben looking at the other agent expecting and answer.

The woman shrugged her shoulders. "Information comes little by little by different agents as we advised all of them to keep contact with us to a minimum."

"Alright keep us posted, and inform us of any development" Abbie said sitting behind her desk. After that Potter handler left. Ben was about to leave too when Abbie stopped him "You know what to do; I want another agent ready to replace Potter, if needed. Check their credentials thoroughly first. He or she has to be very good and physically similar to Potter we don't want people to notice that we are sneaking agents into the castle. Gather the Obliviators too in case someone saw or heard too much. We don't know how bad Potter is, he might let something slip if they give him a potion for pain or when unconscious."

"Very well" Ben said and opened the door to leave.

"Also" Abbie stopped him a second time "call one of our usual healers from saint Mungo's I want one to check on Potter. Be ready to replace him tonight. In the mean time ask Morgana's and raptor's agent to keep an eye on Aphrodite.

"That's risky boss. That would leave her barely protected for a long period of time." Ben said.

"I know but if we do it before night someone might see and that would endanger our agents' cover. Besides she is surrounded by people and the headmasters of three different magic schools, I doubt anyone would attack her now that everyone is on edge after whatever happened in the first task" the head of the unit said.

"They attacked at the World Cup" Ben countered.

"You have a point" Abbie admitted "But I trust our operatives so for now let's stick to that plan. When we have more information about the incident we'll decide if more immediate action is needed." she said and gestured Ben to leave.

Fleur hurried after Madame Pomfrey who was guiding a stretcher where the injured Auror lied. Besides her were Madame Maxime, her parents, her sister, Sabrina and Alana. after them trailed Erika Potter Aided by who Fleur thought were two of the girl's friends and the Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

Each time she took a breath the her chest hurt, she could still feel the adrenaline on her veins and hear her heart on her ears, her muscles were tiff due to the exertion they had had to make. Still she hurried after the Hogwarts nurse, who was almost running while tending to the Auror, as fast as she could. She wanted to see what happened to the Auror.

When they finally approached the infirmary doors they sprung to live opening and letting them through. When the stretcher was completely inside of the room the nurse lied the Auror delicately on the closest bed and then proceed to tore his clothes. Shocked by the contrast of the two actions and the vision of the, now, barely covered body of the man Fleur turned her gaze away. That was the last glimpse she had of the man for after that Madame Pomfrey put a white screen between the injured Auror and the rest of the patients.

From that point onwards Fleur could only heard voices and imagine what was happening.

"Poppy maybe it would be better if we took him to Saint Mungo's" Fleur heard a grave voice, which she thought belonged to Albus Dumbledore, say.

"Let me check him first Albus maybe it's not convenient to move him. Besides I have treated my fair share of nasty quidditch falls many worse than this. I think I could manage." The nurse said hurriedly.

 _Saint Mungo's_ thought Fleur her stomach turning with worry. Were his injures that severe? Intrigued he quietly approached the curtain while the other occupants of the room were busy and took a pick thought the little space that the two white curtains of the screen left uncovered. Once more she was able to see the Auror laying in the infirmary bed, his chest of angry red colour, that was already turning blue, uncovered, while his lower half was covered by a thin white blanket.

"Now let's see mister" Fleur heard Madame Pomfrey mutter "yes, a sprained wrist, broken ribs as I feared. It seems that Miss Potter weighs more than it appears. A punctured lung." she muttered while Fleur captured every word. So far the man was badly injured but nothing magic couldn't fix. "Please Albus Help me turn him around so I can have a look at his back" the nurse requested. What Fleur saw then made her gasp and filled her eyes with tears.

"What do you think you are doing" whispered Sabrina puling her away from the curtain. Fleur didn't answer, she was too shocked by what she had just seen. She closed her eyes attempting to forget it but the image came to her mind again; the blue, almost purple, colour of the skin of his back, the small tickles of blood running from where little pieces of grey rock were engraved on his skin staining the white sheets of the bed.

"We just embedded it further when we laid him on the bed I'm afraid" Fleur Heard Madame Pomfrey said confirming what she had saw the Auror did indeed have little pieces of stone on his back. Sabrina gently guided her to a nearby bed where she sat frozen.

"first we need to fix the ribs" Fleur heard, after that Madame Pomfrey whispered something that Fleur was unable to hear.

Everyone was able to hear what happened next for as the bone, guided by a spell, relocated itself on its rightful place the Auror screamed in pain drowning all sounds on the infirmary.

"Help me contain him, he might injure himself further if he keep moving like that" they all heard the school nurse say "held him by the shoulders we don't want to crack his ribs again" that left them all silent.

"Come on Mister I know it hurts but I need you hold still a little longer, that's it, now drink this and the pain will go away." Apparently the Auror did as told after that they could all hear a choking sound and some rough cough. "Now this one and I'll put you back to sleep" the nurse encouraged. The Auror moaned weakly. "Good now his back" Madame Pomfrey whispered again "no damage to the kidneys, no spine damage or skull damage either" the nurse listed. Relieved Fleur hugged Sabrina while a tears tickled down her cheeks.

Moments later Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey emerged from behind the screen. The other occupants looked expectantly at them but neither of the said a word.

"Do you need further assistance Poppy?" Dumbledore said she shook her head no and the headmaster left.

"Now Miss Potter please come this way" the nurse said while guiding her to another screen that had just appeared. A few minutes later the reappeared from behind it and Erika was allowed to leave with a dreamless sleep potion to help her sleep and indications about how and when to take it. If Fleur didn't know any better she would have said that the girl looked reluctant to leave but her friends led her out of the room.

"Now you Miss Delacour" Madame Pomfrey said. As the only people left were her headmistress, her family, Alana and Sabrina. she proceeded to unbutton two of the buttons of her robe revealing her angry red chest where a bleeding injure could be seen. Funny, Fleur had not even noticed the bleeding. "Hum... either you skin is very thin or that man used to much power on the Expulso spell as it normally doesn't cause any wounds."

"Honestly that was no way of handling the situation, we should report it to our Ministry" Fleur heard her mother say.

"I think it was efficiently taken care of." Madame Pomfrey rebuked "you were completely reckless young lady. Putting yourself in front of a dragon. What possessed you to do it?" The question banished into the air as Fleur kept silent and no one else said anything. Through the silence they could hear the raged breathing of the Auror.

Hogwarts was already covered by the darkness of the night when four clocked figures appeared in the edge of the forbidden forest. Silently they proceeded to the castle, the only sound that could be heard as they advanced was that of the wet grass under their feet.

The castle was barely lighted by the lights that came out of their own windows. Hurriedly, trying to fence of the chill of the night tightening their coats, they entered the grey stoned castle and went to where the infirmary was located. None of them needed directions all remembered the place from their time at the magic school. The travel proceeded without trouble until the doors of the infirmary where another robed figure waited for them his wand casting light on the four of them.

"Miss Williams I was expecting you"

"How did you know we were here Albus" the figure in the head of the group said annoyed while she lowered the hood of her robe.

"Perks of being headmaster." He answered enigmatically of course Abbie had not expected anything else from the old wizard.

"This is the replacement for the agent you have currently in the infirmary, he is my second on command and she is a trained healer form St. Mungo's ." Abbie introduced gesturing to each of them but not giving any names. The headmaster didn't appear to care however.

"Shall we go in then?" Dumbledore asked. Abbie answered with a curt nod.

Inside the infirmary they were received by a dishevelled Madame Pomfrey who didn't look very happy to see them.

"Albus what is the meaning of this, no visits are allowed at this hour of the night no even to you" she said angrily.

"I'm afraid you'll have to make an exception this time, this is Abbie Williams she is here because of the Auror." Albus said.

"He is sleeping so whatever you came here for will have to wait" she said crossing her arms.

"check him up" Ben said to the healer who proceeded to the bed and started casting spells on Harry's body.

"three ribs broken, another one cracked. he doesn't have any other major fracture. A punctured lung, almost healed already. A sprained wrist." The healer then turned Harry around "hematoma covering his back, small wounds present, already cleaned and healed. the injures match what we know of the incident. It also appears that he suffered from a dislocated arm recently, you should watch that to make sure it's not worsened by this recent fall" she said looking at Madame Pomfrey.

"How long until he recovers?" Abbie asked.

"With Skele-gro in minor dosages and a firm bandage the ribs should heal in a period of four days to a week. The wrist, if ice is applied each two hours should be ok in five days maybe less. The extensive hematoma in his back however will take more. It would disappear in one or two weeks but your agent will be stiff much longer than that which might hinder movement." she finished. "I recommend at least five days of bed rest."

"Five days, you must be joking!" Madame Pomfrey said. "They ribs alone would grant at least two weeks to make sure they are healed properly, if he injures them again it would be much worse. The wrist even more if you don't want him to lose some movement in it. As for the hematoma he would be in constant pain each time he moves so he should stay until it's almost healed" she said facing the healer.

She was inclined to agree with her but she had worked with this people before, they wanted results and they wanted them fast so she gave them a time frame that would not endanger the man in the bed but that would also be considered appropriate by her current employers. "Given the circumstances a week will be enough, although he will have to wear an elastic bandage around the ribs to make sure they don't suffer any stress and another one around the wrist to make sure it heals properly."

"Good" said Ben nodding "now wake him up."

The healer raised her wand once more to cast the spell that would wake the Auror when Madame Pomfrey grabbed her hand; "What do you think you are doing that man is in a lot of pain and by now the effect of the sedative potions is gone, if you wake him up he would be in a hell"

"I know the agent won't mind" Ben said and then indicated to the healer to wake him up.

"He is my patient I won't allow it" Madame Pomfrey said stepping in front of the bed.

"Don't worry Madame I know what I'm doing, now please step aside" the healer said calmly. But the nurse didn't budge.

"Poppy please" Dumbledore said.

"But Albus surely you won't let them do it, that man, he had been in pain all day doesn't he deserve to rest! He passed out because of the pain on the field, and only woke up again because of the pain I caused him when I reset his ribs in place!" The nurse said inflamed.

"It needs to be done" the headmaster stated simply and guided Madame Pomfrey away from the bed.

Once her path was cleared the healer woke Harry up. The only indication he was awake at first was the slight movement of his body on the bed, then he growled and slowly opened his eyes. As soon as he saw Abbie he tried to sit strait but a wave of pain didn't let him do it and he instead fell into the mattress again.

"Here, drink this" Madame Pomfrey said but Abbie stopped her "no, not yet that potion could make his mind fuzzy and we need him to tell us what happened clearly. Now I'm afraid this is confidential if you could please leave" Abbie said.

"So you can torture him further?!" The school nurse said.

"This an official Auror matter, now please leave" Abbie asked again.

"He doesn't even have the age to be an Auror!" Madame Pomfrey spat "I healed his bones and bones can tell you a lot of things like the age of the person you tend to and I doubt that boy there is seventeen, even if he is his birthday must have been recently. In any case he is not older enough to be a trained Auror yet!" If Madame Pomfrey expected a reaction she didn't got any. Not even from the Headmaster. Instead she was escorted to the exit of the infirmary by Ben followed by Dumbledore, all the while protesting "But Albus I'm sure they are training children that should be in Hogwarts learning. That has to be illegal..."

"I assure you everything they do is within the law, now come on." The headmaster said reassuringly while they left the room.

Once they were alone Abbie started questioning Harry; "agent I just want to clear with you some things that don't make much sense from the information we gathered" Abbie started "First our information says the task of your charge had already finished when you got injured, furthermore it says that you purposely jumped from the stands after Morgana fell from his broom endangering your own charge who was left unprotected."

"What was I supposed...!" Harry said quite loudly just to be interrupted by a butt of cough "what was I supposed to do left her die. Like that would had been much better, the girl who lived dead" he said sarcastically.

"That it's not the point agent Morgana had an Unit operative protecting her, you had your own mission which you endangered" Abbie admonished.

"Weasley was frozen. In fact everyone else was, or was otherwise occupied with their own charges..."

"As you should had been" Abbie interrupted him.

"Let me explained to you, boss, if I didn't act Eri...Morgana would have fallen and died. While Aphrodite was safe, surrounded by Aurors and teachers from three magical schools. What was I supposed to do; stand there and watch my...my sister die" Harry said whispering the last part to make sure the other agent, who was a few feet away, didn't hear him.

Abbie hesitated by a few seconds and then answered "if it was just your sister yes." She said apologetically "but as she is also a level one charge no. Your actions however are still a breach of the procedure and will be judged by the heads of section in a meeting as protocol dictates. Now please tell me how did Aphrodite ended up hurt."

"I don't know how, or what did exactly happen as at the time I was focused on protecting Morgana and in great pain but suddenly Aphrodite was there facing the dragon..."

"And that was how she was hurt?" Abbie questioned.

"No, of course not! Harry said " as soon as I realized the danger I got her out of harm's way using an Expulso spell. I must have used too much power on it as it broke her skin. But under normal circumstances it should have worked perfectly." Harry said.

"Very well agent. Have you told this to anyone else?"

"Not to the best of my knowledge but I have been under strong pain relieving potions most of the time so I'm not sure." Harry said.

"Don't worry we'll handle that." Abbie reassured him "now I want to introduce you to your replacement guarding Aphrodite for as long as you should be in bed rest." he said gesturing to the other man in the room already dressed in Auror robes.

"Good job were are very similar but someone is going to come see me eventually and they are going to realize we are not the same person"

"It's not our intention to hide the fact that you are hurt agent. We just want to make the change easier on the charge, you know sometimes they get comfortable with their assigned agent and don't want to change. I doubt this is the case with Aphrodite as not many time has passes but w can't take any risks." Abbie said.

Madame Pomfrey chose that moment to enter the infirmary again; "Ok, that's enough he needs to rest. you have kept him awake long enough" The nurse said.

"Don't worry we were just leaving. Agent get well soon, you'll probably be commended for your actions today." Abbie said not looking at Harry already leaving the infirmary but Harry didn't pay any attention he was occupied wondering if in fact someone would pay him a visit at the infirmary. Maybe his sister.

"Miss Williams" Albus Dumbledore called after the head of The Unit.

"Yes?"

"Is he...?" he said not daring to pose the question.

"I can't tell you Albus we made a deal." she said and then left followed by Ben and the healer. two minutes later Dumbledore felt a disturbance in the wards that let him know the three of them were gone.

It didn't matter, Dumbledore thought, if Abbie Williams didn't want to disclose if the agent was indeed Erika's brother. Erika was bound to visit the man that saved her sooner or later and if he was his brother there would be some tell tale signal.

Hermione, Ron and Erika sat in the common room. The first two were silent but Erika was crying and didn't seem to be able to stop.

When they had first arrived at the Gryffindor common room there had been a party going on to celebrate, they said, Erika´s and Hogwarts performance in the task. Erika's performance had not been that brilliant considering she had not exactly finished the task. However as it hadn't been her fault the judges had awarded her the third place, a few seconds behind the Beauxbatons champion, that was not that far away from Victor Krum. But Erika had not been in the mood to celebrate and had seated in a corner turning down every offer to speak or dance.

When midnight was nearing the music had stopped and they all the Gryffindors had cheered for Erika to open the cylinder to see what the clue was but once more she had refused. After the third failed attempt the party had dissolved and the majority of Gryffindors had headed to their rooms most angry at her. Not that Erika had been aware of that or cared. On the contrary she seemed to be distracted almost out of it.

Now past midnight only the three of them occupied the common room seated in their favourite spot on winter; on the corner closer the fire. The room was mostly dark only illuminated by the fire. The silence only broken by the raged breathing of Erika.

Next to her Hermione tried to soothe, without much success, while Ron sat there awkwardly staring at the dancing flames of the fire. "Don't worry Erika. Everything is fine you are safe." Hermione said in a soft voice "Nothing happened. You even completed the task" she tried to cheer her up.

"Everything is not fine. I broke his ribs. He has to be in the infirmary because of me"

"You mean the Auror" Hermione asked gently, Erika nodded "I'm sure that wasn't you" she said drying her tears.

"It was me" Erika countered "I heard them break. Hermione made a grimace and felt silent.

"That might be true, but it was not your fault. You didn't free the dragon. and although you crashed the poor fellow you didn't do it on purpose" Ron who had stopped looking at the fire said looking at them" The mention of the Auror crashing made Erika hiccup again and Hermione gave Ron a dirty look but after that she seemed to calm down.

"You know we could go visit him tomorrow if it makes you feel better" Hermione suggested.

"Yeah I bet that would cheer him up. The infirmary is the most boring place on Hearth. Well except for maybe The History of Magic class" Ron agreed. Erika on the other hand was not so sure.

"I don't know, he needs to rest. Maybe he doesn't want us there. especially me I did broke his ribs even if it wasn't my intention"

"He was the one who jumped after you. It was kind of his job as an Auror. Surely he knew what the consequences of his actions would be" Hermione said. she also wondered how the Auror could be alive and Erika unhurt after such a fall but she chose not to voice that.

"Yeah it was bloody brilliant" Ron said excitedly "he just jumped from the stands and used a spell that threw him in your direction, it was almost like he was flying, then the power of the spell ended and he started to fall but Dumbledore hit him with another spell and he caught you just in time" it was brilliant.

"Horrible more like it" hissed Hermione "Although the use of the Expulso spell was innovative. Nonetheless it was reckless. Very uncommon for a trained Auror."

"What are you talking about" Ron said disbelievingly "Aurors jump into dangerous situations all the time. It kind of their job to do so.

"Yes Ronald, but they normally have a plan and clearly he didn't have much of a plan to face the dragon." Hermione pointed out. "He just avoided it and then distracted it so Erika could, hopefully escape."

"Sound like a plan to me" Ron said.

"Of course it does" Hermione said rolling her eyes.

"I would like to see how you fare against a dragon" the boy whispered.

"What?" Hermione questioned turning her gaze to the red headed boy.

"He called me Erika..." the other occupant of the room said softly.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"When we where there, facing the dragon, she called by my name"

"So? Pretty much everyone in the magical world knows your name" Ron said.

"Yes, but I don't know there was something in the way he said it... something familiar..."

"Not this again Erika" Groaned Hermione seeing where her friend's thought were heading.

"What?" asked Ron

"Erika thinks the Auror might be his brother" she told him and then looking at Erika she added "I thought we had agreed that that was nonsense. No sane person would leave your protection to a kid barely older than you."

"But we never checked" Erika said "Maybe it's true. That would explain a lot of things" then realization hit Erika "Good what if he is my brother. I broke my own brother's ribs" she whispered horrified.

"Come on Erika you are getting ahead of things we don't know for sure if it's your brother, in fact I don't think he is" Hermione said.

"I have been thinking" Ron said "If we want to know for certain if he is your brother or not..." Here he received a glare from Hermione "we need to for certain that he is not in this school for gifted wizards"

"Yes so?" Erika said.

"Well as you know my sister attends that school too so we could write to her and ask her if she has seen your brother around." he said.

"We don't even know if they go to the same school" Hermione reminded them.

"Oh come on how many schools for gifted wizards can be in England?"

"Even so Ron your sister is younger than Harry. Maybe they don't know each other" Hermione countered.

"Well it's better than nothing"

"Ok, ok if you want Erika we will write to Ron's sister now we need to go to bed if you want to visit that Auror tomorrow" Hermione relented.

Fleur distractedly opened the door to her room on the carriage. It was late, past midnight, she was supposed to be already in bed but she had had to endure a lecture from her parents about her reckless actions. Afterwards she had had to talk with Gabrielle who was very shaken by the events of the day, more so since she saw her sister facing a dragon. Now she just wanted to take shower and go to bed. Someone cleared their throat Fleur's room startling her. Immediately her wand was draw but Sabrina and Alana that were waiting for her sitting on her bed. Why they hadn't lighted a candle Fleur didn't know. Maybe they thought it was more theatrical that way.

"What did your parents say?"Alana asked her.

"They lectured my about my behaviour as expected" Fleur said scratching the part of her chest where the Expulso had impacted.

"Well you were very reckless" Sabrina said.

"Save it Sabrina I don't want to hear it. My parents speech was enough was enough."

"Well I do want to tell you" Sabrina countered heatedly "You know how many reckless or foolish things have you done since the World Cup. It's so out of character for you..." Sabrina said.

"Well someone had to do something, that dragon was going to kill the girl"

"You didn't do it for the girl and you know it" Sabrina said "you did it for the Auror."

"So what if I did? He was in danger and I think I did quite well"

"That dragon could have hurt you" Sabrina said.

"He was hurt and no one seemed to be doing anything to help him!"

"They could not do anything at the moment. Fleur, his job entails a certain level of risk, I'm sure he knows that, his fellow Aurors know it too the only one who doesn't get it is you!"

"He. Could. Have. Died" Fleur said slowly "if I didn't cast the spell to soften the rock... no one deserves now even if it's an Auror you more than anyone should know it Sabrina."

"For the record he would have died anyway if I didn't cast Aresto Momentum. But that's not the point. Why Fleur why do you keep acting like this. First you run out of Ollivander's chasing a man, then you go wandering the Hogwarts castle at night to go visit an Auror you have never met and the next morning you are torn because something he said to you and now you face a dragon for another Auror you don't know either why?"

Fleur didn't answer immediately she fidgeted instead "I..."

"You what" Sabrina coerced her

"I ...I already told you I have this weird sensation that I cannot identify when I see him it's driving me crazy. It's I have met him before and like a call that attracts me to him all at once."

"You are crazy" Sabrina sentenced "You said that about the man in the world cup, the french Auror and now this one" you seriously need more friends or a boyfriend, something to distract you."

"I know how it sounds but it's true" the girl said.

"I don't think it matters anyway" Alana chimed in, her two friends looked at her quizzically "well he didn't seem to appreciate your help he threw you out of the arena as soon as he could and used enough force to injure you" Alana explained.

"you are right" Fleur said "I should go and demand an explanation. I was only trying to help. I pretty much saved him and he threw me against a tent. How dare he!" Fleur said anger seizing her, what for she could not fully explained.

"Well you would be able to tell him but tomorrow" Sabrina said sternly.

Erika was nervous, she didn't knew why they were not sure the man was his brother. If she was honest with herself even she had her doubts, but the fact was that she was nervous.

She didn't know what to do until the visit hours arrived, she had stayed late in bed. She had had a late breakfast. and then had showered and changed into a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt. She didn't know why but she didn't want to wear her school uniform now.

"Hey Erika" Hermione called "the visit hours are about to start, are you coming?"

"Yeah" she said hurrying to the entrance of the Gryffindor tower where Ron and Hermione waited. They walked in silence. Erika spent almost all the time pulling at her sleeves. They had just taken the corridor that would led them to the infirmary when an idea came to Erika's mind and she halted her step, her friends stopping with her.

"What is it?" Hermione asked "are you still worried about having broken his ribs?"

"No, I mean a little, but it's not that. Could you please wait for me in the infirmary doors? But don't go in until I arrived pleased" she said and started running in the opposite direction while Ron made a gesture to indicate she was crazy.

Hermione walked impatiently in front of the infirmary doors, more than half an hour had passed since Erika had left and still no sign of her. In truth she was starting to worry. She once more looked to the corridor but saw nothing and started to pace again.

Ten minutes later Erika finally appeared with a bag on her hands.

"Where were you? And what's that?" Hermione asked .

"I figured we could not break the tradition" Erika simply said and entered the infirmary. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Miss Potter what are you doing here again so soon. Don't tell me you already injured yourself again already. Madame Pomfrey asked.

"No, I just came to see your patient" Erika answered.

"And what it's that?" the nurse inquired pointing to the bag.

"I thought I had to bring him a gift, since you know he saved me" she whispered. After that Madame Pomfrey let them go without further question.

When they arrived to the bed where the Auror was Erika found that she didn't really knew what to say to the man lying there that could or could not be her brother. There were so many question, so many doubts that she was not sure what to say and Hermione didn't help her at all when in a whisper she pointed; _he has blonde hair it cannot be your brother_. She decided to start with something simple. "I brought you these to thank you" she said pouring into the bed and besides table an assortment of sweets. "It kind of a tradition she added."

"A tradition? How many times have you been in the infirmary?" Harry asked feigning ignorance although he knew the number of times very well.

"Enough" Erika said looking at her shoes.

"Well... thank you" the man, although now that Erika looked closely at him he seemed more a boy than a man, said unsure.

"I brought you sugar quills, lemon drops, Licorice snaps, Licorice wands, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans..."

Are those chocolate frogs?" Harry interrupted her. "yes" Erika answered. "Oh man it's been ages since I ate one of those" Harry said.

"Well then come one open them" Erika encouraged him.

"This one is a white chocolate one I had never seen one of these" Harry said examining the chocolate that started squiring between his fingers.

"Yes we actually have a game we open them all and try to catch only the brown ones avoiding the ones made of white chocolate"

"Sounds fun" Harry said. Taking that as a cue Erika started opening them until every frog was on the mattress and the game begun. Ron was the first one to lose, he just wanted to eat the frogs so he didn't put much care in what frogs he picked. Hermione went down next her reflexes had never been her best trait. Now only Harry and Erika were left.

"I think you are going to lose" Erika said.

"What makes you be so sure?" Harry asked.

"Well you just said you hadn't eaten a chocolate frog in ages so I doubt you have played this game."

"I bet you I can catch one with my eyes closed" Harry challenged.

"No, no way" the three of them said. Harry just closed his eyes listened and waited placing his hands on the blanket. When he felt a change on the pressure he make a rapid move a caught the treat on his hand. When he opened his eyes again three sets of orbs looked at her astonished. It made Harry worry, had he perhaps too much of his abilities? Would they ask.

He was saved however by the entrance of the headmaster. "Ah I see that you are in good company Mister..." Dumbledore said letting the last word hang in the air

"Brown, Oliver brown" Harry answered with the fake name he had memorized for the mission.

"Well Oliver I see that Miss Potter already has provided you with good supplies that I don't know how he managed to get into the school." Dumbledore said with an indulgent look in his eyes "I just came to see how you were"

"Ok considering the circumstances sir" Harry answered "Although I do wonder how It's possible that I'm alive after a fall like that. Don't get me wrong I'm glad I am" He clarify "But it's estrange"

"Ah yes well you have Miss Delacour and her friend Sabrina I think to thank for that" They did quite a brilliant use of magic. Fleur softened the impact with a cushioning charm. of course no matter how soft the material is at the sped you were falling you would have still cracked your spine and died" At that Erika gasped. "But thankfully Sabrina used Aresto Momentum." The headmaster explained. "unfortunately my speeding spell had more power than hers and she was not able to counter it completely hence why you got hurt. And now if you excuse me I'll leave as I see you are in good hands and I have things to tend to but not before I grab a lemon drop if you allow me" Harry nodded and grabbing the sweet the headmaster left.

"Did it hurt?" Erika asked since the topic had already been started.

"What?" Harry inquired. "The ribs Erika asked guiltily looking at his torso that was now partly covered by the white blankets and partly by a white bandage.

"Don't worry about that it's not the worst I have suffered." After that Harry suggested they played another game with the candy, to try and lift the mood, and they played something akin to the Russian roulette with the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, picking the beans with their eyes closed and then eating then hoping it was a normal flavour, until it was lunch time and the three on them had to leave to eat.

...

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 **I wanted to tell you that with the last chapter I surpassed my largest count of reviews to date by 6. Normally I would have waited until the end of the fic to thank you but seeing the very good results I'm having I didn't want to wait -I know there are a lot of other people that have more reviews etc. but for me this is huge- I have more than the double of follows and favourites than in other stories and the double of views. 5000 this moth alone. So for that thanks to all of you who took and still take interest in my story. (Normally I would post your names but you are two many so... you recieved a PM anyway).Also this is my longest fic to date on terms of word count and it has my longest chapter to date with more than 7000 words.  
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 **I hope this is a turning point in my writing and more and more peole want to read my stuff (although it could only mean that there are more peole that ship this particular pairing). So once more thank you for reading, reviewing, following and favoriting. Let's see if I can get to 100 reviewa that would be awesome.**

 **On another note next chapter Fleur finally talk to Harry for real.**

 **Also I decided that I will add a bonus chapter at the end of this fic (still far away I will post a pall with the titles of the posibilities for you to chose).**

 **xs18**


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